GOING BOLDLY
Shatner, still soaring, in indie ‘Moment’
William Shatner isn’t letting age keep him down.
The legendary starship captain turns 90 on Monday, and the Canadian-born actor who started his career in the 1950s is just as busy as ever.
He’s got a series airing on the History channel, he’s heading overseas to shoot an episode of a television show, and is in the middle of promoting his latest feature film, a romantic comedy called “Senior Moment.”
“They wrote it so well, I had to do the film,” Shatner told the Daily News.
The indie film features Shatner as Victor, a former test pilot who dates younger women and loves burning rubber behind the wheel of his beautiful 1955 Porsche.
That is until a mishap during an ill-advised drag race causes him to lose his license.
As he struggles to accept he’s getting older and fights to get his license back, Victor meets a free-spirited woman played by Emmy-winner Jean Smart, who makes him rethink his ideas about love.
Smart, who recently earned raves for her role in HBO’s “Watchmen,” played Shatner’s love interest in the 2010 sitcom, “$#*! My Dad Says.”
The one-time T.J. Hooker star is also reunited with Christopher Lloyd, the “Back to the Future” actor who played a villainous Klingon in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.”
“I was delighted that they were cast,” he said. “They are wonderful people ... and it was a joy to work with them.”
“Senior Moment” was shot in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2017. The filmmakers spent years in post production and finding a distributor, which is common when making movies outside the studio system.
“They’re so risky,” Shatner said of independent films. “Who’s going to give you a couple million dollars ... of their money to make a film that may or may not go. It’s a gamble.”
He credited producer Gina Goff for never giving up on “Senior Moment,” which hits screens on March 26.
“To fall into the graveyard of independent films would have been a shame, and due to her hard work, this movie is being released now,” Shatner explained.
Films with a mostly older cast sometimes struggle to lure in younger viewers, but Shatner believes a good story isn’t about age,
“The characters are older, but the story is eternal, it’s a love story,” he said. And love, Shatner says, is something we need more of these days.
“Love is love, and as we know, from all the things that are taking place now, it doesn’t matter who and what the love is, as long as there’s love in your life,” he said.