At 91 years old, William Shatner still has the time and energy to talk about his life and career. The Canadian actor appeared at this year’s SXSW to join a conversation led by Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Tim League.
According to the Austin American Statesman, Shatner began by bringing everyone back to his youth when he told a story about going to going to a summer camp in somewhere in Quebec where the farmers would slaughter pigs and make blood pudding, a form of blood sausage.
He then explained that it was at that same summer camp that he began acting.
“I made the audience cry because of some of the words they gave me to speak,” Shatner said.
After Shatner’s performance, he recalled his father praising him, yelling “My boy, Bill!” after his show.
The Star Trek actor warmly accepted his father’s praise since he had rarely shown his love through affection during his youth.
League, interested in Shatner’s Canadian heritage, told him he’s “a distinctly Canadian human being.” Shatner responded by saying he’d tried removing “aboot” from his vocabulary and that he regularly visits his two sisters, who both live in Montreal.
In fact, Shatner’s Canadian background still draws confusion from customs agents.
“I still have my Canadian passport,” Shatner said. When travelling, customs agents would yell “Oh my god, you’re still Canadian!”
Before heading off into his professional acting career, Shatner added that he was a terrible student at McGill, having skipped his economics classes as he pursued his interests like musicals, radio, and theatre.
