Shatner says steak lured him to Stampede
Television star excited to try Canadian rib-eye, mountain trails
CALGARY HERALD
William Shatner may be a devoted rider, breeder and allaround horse enthusiast, but he will be riding in an antique car alongside his wife Friday morning as he helps kick off the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth as grand marshal of the Stampede parade through downtown Calgary.
Meeting the press outside the Calgary Stampede’s new merchandise store on Thursday afternoon, Shatner was in good spirits, joking about everything from moonlanding hoaxes, to his riding attire, to his age.
But he was most serious when discussing equestrian matters.
“I had a choice and I don’t know the horse,” he said, when asked if he would have preferred to lead the parade on a horse.
“I’ve ridden a horse in parades before. It’s long. It’s hard on the horse. The surface is very tough.”
Sporting the obligatory white cowboy hat, Shatner kept the conference short and lighthearted for the most part.
When the actor most famous for playing no-nonsense Starship Enterprise captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek was told the nearby town of Vulcan was famously visited by co-star and television Vulcan Leonard Nimoy a few years back, he proclaimed he would “avoid that assiduously.”
Asked if he saw a trend in Stampede grand marshals given that last year’s choice was “real astronaut” Chris Hadfield, Shatner launched into a somewhat spacey joke about moon-landing hoaxes.
“Do you believe the astronaut really went to the moon?” he asked.
“There is reason to believe that it was all a hoax. Whereas you know it really was a hoax with me. With an astronaut there’s some niggling doubt. There’s no niggling with me.”
And, finally, he revealed perhaps a little too much when a fashion blogger asked what he would be wearing to lead the parade.
“Black underwear,” he said quickly. “I’m going to wear suspenders. I’ve decided to make a style statement.”
Shatner, 83, also revealed that he continues to be a very busy and filmmaker. He has an upcoming documentary, Chaos on the Bridge, about Star Trek: The Next Generation, and is working on a web series. He also just completed three films. Still, he said he did not need much coaxing from Stampede board chairman Bob Thompson to come to Calgary.
“Canadian steaks are grass-fed for the most part,” he said. “So they dangled a little rib-eye. That’s all it took.”
A competitive rider and champion horse breeder, Shatner said he would be hitting the trails near Banff with his family on Saturday and got philosophical about his relationship with horses.
“I’ve begun to understand a horse’s nature better and better the more I ride, the more I breed, the more I read about it,” he said.
“So there is a meaningful side to riding a horse ... There’s a conversation that takes place between a horse and a man at a certain skill level.”
Speaking of skills, he also plans to take in some rodeo action, even if he did not completely understand the daredevil nature of the competitors. “I love rodeos,” he said. “I love to see a guy on a bucking horse. And the bulls. You sit in the stadium and you wonder, how can a guy be so crazy? How stupid is he to get on a bull?”
While he was not asked directly how or if he would be indulging in Stampede’s partying spirit, he was asked if he had heard of a hashtag that has come up frequently on Twitter since he was announced as the Stampede grand marshal: “Let’s get Shatfaced.”
“No,” he said, breaking into one of his legendary dramatic pauses. “But ... why not?”
I love to see a guy on a bucking horse. And the bulls. You sit in the stadium and you wonder, how can a guy be so
crazy?