{"id":18020,"date":"2016-02-15T09:01:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/qa-shatner-talks-nimoy-friendship-in-new-book\/"},"modified":"2016-02-15T09:01:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T17:01:27","slug":"qa-shatner-talks-nimoy-friendship-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/qa-shatner-talks-nimoy-friendship-in-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Shatner talks Nimoy friendship in new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014<\/strong> The walls and shelves inside William Shatner\u2019s office are covered with the kinds of memorabilia you\u2019d expect from someone who\u2019s served for over 50 years as a pop-culture icon.<\/p>\n

There are framed awards, art pieces, posters for Montreal sports teams and covers of his past books.<\/p>\n

Shatner\u2019s latest memoir, \u201cLeonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man,\u201d is out Tuesday. In the book, Shatner details his relationship with \u201cStar Trek\u201d comrade Leonard Nimoy, who died a year ago.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s asked about one image in particular \u2014 a picture of Shatner, Nimoy and their late \u201cStar Trek\u201d co-star DeForest Kelley \u2014 he doesn\u2019t remember where or when the picture was taken. However, he\u2019s struck by their body language. In the photo, Shatner and Nimoy are smiling together off to one side, while the Dr. McCoy actor appears more serious away from the duo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose Leonard and I were closer than we were letting on even there,\u201d Shatner says with his eyes gleaming like he\u2019d just discovered a new alien world.<\/p>\n

The 84-year-old actor-writer spoke with The Associated Press last week about his on-again, off-again relationship with Nimoy from behind the desk in his office.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: Why did you want to write a book about your relationship with Leonard?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner: <\/strong>It marks the period at end of this long paragraph of our lives together. I thought I needed to say this for myself, but it may be of interest to other people.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: Why do you think you and Leonard were close?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner:<\/strong> We were so much alike and had so much in common \u2014 both in our personal and professional history \u2014 that we were able to speak on terms that we both understood. I never had that before. (He was) a brother I never had. That\u2019s how he and I referred to each other.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: How difficult was it to revisit your relationship? There were highs but also lows.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner: <\/strong> It was very difficult to be entirely honest with myself. I think sugarcoating was a possibility, and I didn\u2019t want to do that. This is the truth, as I see it. I\u2019m not going to be around for a great deal more time, and (the book) will hopefully define, if someone is interested, what these two actors felt.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: Eventually, Leonard and you weren\u2019t on speaking terms with each other. How do you feel about not having any closure with him before his death?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner:<\/strong> I feel a great deal of sadness. Here was this great friend who had a problem with me, and I don\u2019t know what the problem is \u2014 no matter what I tried to do. Leonard had done that more than once with other people. It was his means of protecting himself, in some manner. I don\u2019t know what it was. It\u2019ll remain a mystery.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: How do you feel about criticisms from people that this book capitalizes on his death and you shouldn\u2019t have written it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner:<\/strong> I don\u2019t understand that. Why not? It happened to me. It didn\u2019t happen to them. I have made many stories, anecdotes and dramatic readings of things that have happened to me.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: You\u2019re not in the next \u201cStar Trek\u201d movie, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner:<\/strong> No.<\/p>\n

\n

AP: Have you seen the previews for it? It looks like Chris Pine\u2019s Captain Kirk is engaging in motorcycle stunts on an alien planet. Did your Kirk ever ride motorcycle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shatner: <\/strong>I\u2019m a motorcyclist. I have been for a good part of my life. Kirk has not been on a motorcycle. Kirk has been weightless and far exceeded being on a motorcycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The walls and shelves inside William Shatner\u2019s office are covered with the kinds of memorabilia you\u2019d expect from someone who\u2019s served for over 50 years as a pop-culture icon. There are framed awards, art pieces, posters for Montreal sports<\/a> teams and covers of his past books. Shatner\u2019s latest memoir, \u201cLeonard: My Fifty-Year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":18021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18020"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}