Jimmy Kimmel may have given William Shatner one of the best birthday presents you can give an actor: the opportunity to redo a performance he wasn't happy with. On Thursday night, the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host and the “Star Trek” legend discussed Captain Kirk's famous death while promoting Shatner’s documentary about himself, “You Can Call Me Bill.”
“You said in the documentary that your last appearance as Captain Kirk, you didn’t love your acting or your take on your line in the movie,” Kimmel said.
“Well, yes. Somehow when you say it, it sounds awful,” Shatner said before asking the late night host if he could rephrase his self criticism.
“As an earnest artist, the fault is mine. Captain Kirk is dying. So how does a person die? How do you die? How do you know when you’re dying?” Shatner said. “I think you die the way you live. So Captain Kirk always had these grotesque things happening, ‘Oh look at that. It’s an animal. I think it’s going to eat me.’ But without fear, but with joy and love and opportunity to see what’s better.”
Captain Kirk’s major death scene occurred in the 1994 film “Star Trek Generations.” The movie shows Captain Kirk teaming up with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to stop Tolian Soran from destroying a planetary system. Although they manage to kill Soran, Captain Kirk is fatally injured in the process. Shatner’s final scene shows him buried under rubble while quietly saying the phrase “Oh my” before he passes away.
“I ad-libbed the, ‘Oh my.’ I thought he would see death, an old man with the scythe on his shoulder, and look at it and wonder,” Shatner said before noting the take that was used “sounded fearful.” “I didn’t want to be fearful.”
That’s when Kimmel brought out some hunks of rubble and a ketchup bottle and offered to let Shatner perform Captain Kirk’s death one last time, an offer the actor happily embraced. Watch the re-do of this iconic sci-fi death above.
That wasn’t the only birthday present Kimmel had in store for Shatner. Earlier in the interview, Kimmel regular Guillermo Rodriguez presenting the actor with a flaming cake adorned with 93 candles. Shatner tried to blow out the candles before letting Kimmel take over the brunt of the lung work.
“I noticed it’s a one tiered cake. It’s a little cheap isn’t it?” Shatner teased.
“We spared every expense,” Kimmel said.
