William Shatner: There’s an app for him
Actor lets fans control his voice
RALEIGH, N.C. William Shatner is having a moment in the tech world. The former Star Trek captain, now 81, is featured in Blindlight Apps Shatoetry, which shot to the top of the entertainment app list on Apple iTunes last week on its first day of release.
The app allows users to choose from hundreds of words to arrange sentences, which Shatner will then recite in his trademark voice and style. There is also a mode that lets users collaborate on “Shatisms” and there are single-player challenges like creating Haiku and poetry.
Shatner, is currently touring the U.S. with his critically acclaimed oneman Broadway show, Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It.
Q How would you like to expand this app moving forward? Perhaps adding music?
A Well, we have that in mind. Words to music. We have in mind holiday things. We have in mind events in your life, words so that you can use them as well. We will increase this if people love it and tell other people that they love it. When we get an audience we know that is worthwhile, we will add to it.
Q One audience you know you definitely have out there is Star Trek fans. Do you see any opportunities with special app add-ons for them?
A Well, yes. I don’t think we’ll leave opportunity unexplored, but I wanted to be very careful about how we introduce it so it is not something that is derogatory or stupid. I want to make sure that it’s used in the way it’s meant to be used, which is for your entertainment.
Q Do you see opportunities for other actors to work with you on this app?
A We hope that it becomes popular enough to interest people into doing some words.
Q So users would be able to mix your words with other actors’ words through this app?
A Yes. Exactly. Have them do keywords like ‘love.’ There are certain words that everybody wants to use like ‘love’ and ‘hate’ and words that you use somewhere in your conversation ... Commonly used words that are positive, I think that would be a way of getting a well-known person to take a chance in interpreting that word several different ways and know that they won’t look foolish, or be made to look foolish.
Q How are you taking advantage of today’s technology to connect with fans?
A I’m using it in as many ways as feasible. I’m doing podcasts. I’m certainly doing everything else, Facebook, Twitter and all that kind of thing. I’m taking advantage of communicating with the people out there as much as possible, and this app is one of those ways.