Entertainment
George Takei labels Star Trek co-star William Shatner a ‘cantankerous old man’ and vows to never talk about him again-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro
George is done.
George Takei is done talking about William Shatner (Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
George Takei has vowed to stop talking about William Shatner as he labelled him a ‘cantankerous old man’.
The Star Trek legend is done speaking about his former co-star and he insisted chat show hosts are now banned from asking about their real life feud because he finds the whole situation ‘tiresome’.
Appearing on this week’s episode of The Graham Norton show, he said: ‘You are the last chat show host to be allowed to ask that question as it has become so tiresome to talk about.
‘When Bill has a book to sell he needs publicity and accuses us of using him. My subject is more substantial and important.
‘He is a cantankerous old man and I will not talk about him anymore. I vow that this is the very last time I talk about him.”
The 85-year-old was on the show to promote the West End musical George Takei’s Allegiance, which is based on his childhood experiences of internment in World War II.
William Shatner hasn’t kept quiet either (Picture: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
He reflected: ‘When Pearl Harbour was bombed, racism and war hysteria swept through the country and Japanese Americans were abused, rounded up and arrested. It was a horrible time and it’s seared into my brain.’
Meanwhile, George did touch on the beginnings of Star Trek, and admitted he actually thought the sci fi classic was too good to last more than one season.
He said: ‘After the pilot episode, I was asked what I thought and I said that I didn’t think it would sell or be a lasting show because I smelt quality – I loved the scripts, everyone was great, it was a great idea – and every time I saw a show I really love it only lasted one season. How wrong I was!’
George Takei (left) and William Shatner (right) do not see eye-to-eye (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)
George previously claimed that William was ‘not a team player’ to work with, telling the New York Times: ‘The rest of the cast all understand what makes a scene work. It’s everybody contributing to it.
‘But Bill is a wonderful actor and he knows it, and he likes to have the camera on him all the time.’
George also threw a dig at William about his space flight aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin capsule last year, calling him ‘not the fittest specimen’ to make the trip.
William hit back, telling Page Six: ‘There’s a psychosis there… There must be something else inside George that is festering, and it makes him unhappy that he takes it out on me…
‘Why would he go out of his way to denigrate me? It’s sad, I feel nothing but pity for him.’
And just last week, the 91-year-old star told the Times that his former co-star ‘has never stopped blackening’, while claiming him and other ex cast mates are ‘bitter and embittered’.
He added: ‘I have run out of patience with them. Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?’
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