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SPACE AGE
William Shatner on plastic surgery, Para-motoring and why Captain Kirk is immortal.

Text: CHARLENE ROOKE

ENROUTE: YOU ARE 71 YEARS OLD. SOME OF US FIND THAT IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE.

WILLIAM SHATNER: That includes me as well. I find that hard to believe.

ER: HOW OLD DO YOU FEEL - WHAT'S YOUR REAL AGE?

WS: Thirty-three. It's more than 25 but not quite as old as 40. I still feel like the same person I was at that age but more intense, distilled.

ER: WHAT HELPS KEEP YOU FEELING YOUNG?

WS: Unfulfilled ambitions. The next race, the next part, the next movie, the next horizon.

ER: YOU RIDE HORSES, RACE CARS… WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO FOR FUN AT YOUR AGE?

WS: Waking up is fun - not being dead is good fun! I enjoy everything. Breakfast. Waking up beside my wife. Hearing my children's and grandchildren's voices. Being with my dogs and horses. Applying myself to whatever work I'm doing. The list goes on.

ER: WHAT'S YOUR LATEST HOBBY?

WS: Para-motoring, which is done with a motor on your back and a parasail in your hand. You run like all get-out and try and inflate the sail and start the motor all at the same time. And if you're successful, you're flying. I took it up a few years ago.

ER: WHAT'S THE BEST THING ABOUT GETTING OLDER?

WS: I don't know that there is one!

ER: DO YOU GET SMARTER?

WS: Not really. You think you do. You think something you've done before has some relationship to something that's coming up, but it isn't necessarily so. Each experience is unique. At least, you should treat it that way.

ER: WHAT'S ONE THING YOU KNOW NOW THAT YOU WISH YOU HAD KNOWN 30 OR 40 YEARS AGO?

WS: That nobody knows anything. Everybody has an opinion but it's not necessarily any more valid. The only problem is, you have to live that before you learn it. Every generation rediscovers the truths, but by the time you rediscover them it's too late.

ER: HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO STAY YOUNG?

WS: I'd go as far as Malibu. There's the beach. Brown skin. Sea air, seafood, see a lot…

ER: WALT DISNEY SUPPOSEDLY FROZE HIMSELF. PEOPLE GO TO ALL KINDS OF EXTREMES TO STAY YOUNG - OPERATIONS, INJECTIONS...

WS: Well, no. I've never gone that far. I think the best thing you can do to stay young is find yourself some good genes. If you've chanced upon some good aging genes, you've got it made. On the other hand, if your mother and father died early or looked bad, it's likely that you will.

ER: IS THERE LONGEVITY IN THE SHATNER FAMILY HISTORY?

WS: My father died of a stroke at the age of 68. My mother lived to 83. But it's hard to say with that generation because nobody knew about fat in the diet or eating too much meat or that smoking was bad. I don't smoke; I essentially don't drink. My lifestyle is extraordinarily healthy.

ER: CAPTAIN KIRK NEVER AGES - HE ALWAYS LOOKS THE SAME. HERE'S THE STAR TREK QUESTION: WOULD YOU WANT TO BE IMMORTAL IF YOU COULD BE?

WS: Kirk never ages because he's imprisoned on film. Film, if it's any good, does give you a slight shot at limited immortality. I think the half-life of film is about 40 years - more if it's digitally transferred. Maybe it's not quite immortality, but it gives you about 20 years more than most people get.