William Shatner is Dangerous in 'Christmas' horror
William Shatner has been in scary situations during his career, notably coming to grips with a gremlin on his plane in a classic Twilight Zone episode.
The creepy goings-on surround Shatner this time in A Christmas Horror Story (in select theaters and video on demand), where the villainous Krampus is summoned to wreak havoc in small-town Bailey Downs, Santa Claus is dealing with zombie elves and yuletide-loving DJ Dangerous Dan (Shatner) is holding down the fort at the local radio station. He’s not alone, as there's plenty of alcohol to keep him company.
“I wish I could tell you it was a work of art and I’m basing a whole decade on it, but it’s a wonderfully entertaining film that I think will be very popular,” says Shatner, 84, adding that he’s not sure if it’s supposed to be a Halloween film (because of the early release) or a Christmas movie.
But, he admits, “Halloween is a really good time to release a horror film.”
Shatner talks about hitting the hard stuff onscreen, holiday favorites and his next emotional project:
Q: What’s your key in getting more and more drunk onscreen as the movie goes on?
A: When I was facing this interview, I thought, "What the hell am I going to talk about?" (laughs). If you’re going to cry on film, you know you’re good for one good cry in a film. If you’re crying twice in a film, that’s one too many times — it turns off the audience. So if you’re going to be drunk, you have to meter out the drunkenness and not be too drunk to begin with, otherwise you have no place to go. The real problem is technically how drunk to get with the amount of time I’m on camera. That required a little math: 10% at a time, resulting in a 50% drunk at the end.
Q: Krampus is known as the anti-Santa. What’s your take on that myth of a darker version of the holly jolly guy?
A: Everybody has in them, to one degree or another, the opposite of what they are mostly of. If somebody is ambitious and energized, there are times when they just want to absolutely do nothing. The same goes for good and evil. There is an emotional balancing act going on all the time, I would think.
Q: So how would you describe the anti-Shatner?
A: I would like to say that the opposite of me is a servant of the good, so being selfish and single-minded and thinking of one’s self only and being jealous, those negative emotions are all there buried. And the older you get, either the further buried they become or they become extant as you get older.
Q: What’s your favorite Halloween movie?
A: In (John Carpenter’s) Halloween, they use a death mask of me (for killer Michael Myers). It’s exactly along the lines of good and evil. I’m in it in an evil sense but I’m not in it. You see that? That’s the perfect example of how skin deep my evil is.
Q: And fave Christmas film?
A: One I always migrated to was Miracle on 34th Street. That was a deeply treacly, sentimental film that touched everybody’s heart at a time when treacly had a different formula.
Q: Your new book Leonard is a memoir with your thoughts on your Star Trek co-star and late friend Leonard Nimoy. That must have been bittersweet to write.
A: I’m actually reading the galleys right now. It’s fair. It’s not as poetical as I’d like it to be but it’s hard to write lyrically about something as delicate as a friend’s death.