It would appear that people are beginning, slowly, haltingly, to realize that William Shatner won his Emmys for a reason.
The standard line used to be that Shatner 'couldn't act.' If you thought otherwise, you were wise to keep it to yourself.
My dad taught acting. Sometimes did it himself.
So I grew up with it all. "Play against the dominant emotion." "Interiorize." "You're never talking to the other character, you're always talking to the audience." A thousand other teachings that wouldn't even make sense for me to repeat because they were in the moment. ("Turn just a little bit. There. Yes.") I know what those teachings are aiming at, the liberation, the moment when an actor is most in control and most in abandon. And I know that moment when I see it. I grew up watching actors work, from amateurs to students to professionals.
I know my shit here.
And I never for one minute questioned William Shatner's chops when I first started watching "Star Trek" in reruns as a child.
The article above says "This is not a man known for subtlety, but he should be." I about had an aneurysm. That one gets the "no shit" of the ages. Does anyone remember that bit of business in "Wrath of Khan" where he realizes his glasses are cracked, and tosses them aside? Hel...LOOOOO. He underplayed that thing to the point of throwing it away, and it's only the central defining moment of the entire film. (One of the great crimes of Americans towards their own movies is they think only Frenchmen make the kind of film where its whole meaning is that the glasses are cracked. Yeah, no, we do that too. It's just we do it in science fiction movies with explosions.)
And one of the great crimes of Americans towards their own actors (and yes, I know Shatner is Canadian, eh) is to squelch and suppress our operatic talents, seeking to deny them their full range, their size, their scope...the room they need to move, the scale they need to do their full work. Which, thank you, includes subtlety. Much more so than the tinny little talents who merely condense.
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The people who thought Shatner couldn't act either weren't paying attention, didn't understand what they were looking at--or were embarrassed and ashamed that a guy in a space uniform could make them feel.
Now that he's put on a suit and started playing a lawyer, it's somehow more okay to see what we see when we watch him.
Well, that's fine. My hat is off to the king of the American third act. Lord knows we need one now.
