William Shatner harbored “tremendous” doubts about making his surname the punchline of a recent advertising campaign.
The 94-year-old star features in a fresh Kellogg’s Raisin Bran spot – which premiered during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast (08.02. 26) – where he beams into different scenarios distributing the cereal while being called ‘Will Shat’ repeatedly, a wordplay on his last name resembling the past tense of a crude term, emphasizing the high-fiber breakfast product’s digestive advantages.
However, the Star Trek icon revealed that he initially hesitated because his surname made him a target for bullies during his youth.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he confessed, “I haven’t lost those apprehensions.
“I mean, I used to get into fights when I was a kid in the locker room. They’d kid me about that. I’d say, ‘Don’t call me that!’ and I’d fight them. It was a sore spot as a child.
“And then adults stopped doing it. But it lurks, and for them to find it was, in itself, a kind of discovery.”
The Twilight Zone veteran questioned whether a pun-laden advertisement about bowel movements could be simultaneously funny and “in decent taste”.
He explained: “Kellogg’s wanted to do a Super Bowl commercial talking about fibre, which makes you c— really well – you s— really well with fibre.
“And the problem was: how do you make that amusing? How do you get a laugh out of that? And that’s what they worked on.
“To their benefit, the advertising company started off with my name, and I kept saying, ‘Can you do that? Does that mean it’s me sitting on a toilet?’ So we worked on refining what was in decent taste, if not good taste, about what is amusing about going to the bathroom.”
Although he’s most recognized for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek, William tries to separate himself from the series as much as possible.
However, he felt the commercial’s opening scene – where he’s seen in a futuristic control room – was a subtle nod to the sci-fi show without being overly explicit.
He expressed: “I don’t like the idea of referring to it. I try and edit it out of anything they write for me to say, as much as possible. But visually, it looks good. And I chose clothing that didn’t reflect the [Star Trek] uniform, although they had originally planned that way.
“So I think it’s a reasonable homage to Star Trek without making it Star Trek. I tried to be tongue-in-cheek about it all. I hope that there’s a subtext of my knowing – that I’m kidding myself.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
