It’s obvious why Alexandre O. Philippe would want to make a documentary about William Shatner. The Swiss director’s filmography combines explorations of pop culture phenomena (zombie history Doc of the Dead and Memory: The Origins of Alien) and deep dives into the work of singular storytellers (Lynch/Oz, The People vs. George Lucas).
“There’s always this light at the end of the tunnel for [Shatner], and I think that’s beautiful.” – Alexandre O. Philippe
Moreover, it’s obvious why anyone would want to make a documentary about William Shatner. Because it’s William Shatner (Bill, as he insists people call him): one of the most recognized and recognizable people alive. “This is a man who has done literally everything,” said Philippe, and yet he keeps going. “At almost 92 now, he’s gone into space, he rides his horse every day, he’s constantly working, he’s constantly doing stuff, he’s as vibrant as any person you will ever meet, never mind at his age.”
Maybe the real question is: Why would Bill Shatner want to make a documentary with Philippe? They’d never even met before a lunchtime appointment, set up by production house Legion M. The filmmaker turned up in Studio City expecting a regular pitch meeting, “but when we sat down to lunch, he was not interested in the approach. He was interested in me as a person. He kept asking me a lot of questions about my life, my upbringing, my childhood, what I believe in, life, the universe, all that stuff. And after lunch he basically went, ‘All right, when do we do this?'” Over that lunch, he had gained Shatner’s trust, “and the moment there’s trust on a human level, he’s willing to open up.”
You Can Call Me Bill does not aim to be a definitive history of Shatner (how could anyone cram 91 years of life and seven decades of nonstop work into two hours?). Instead, it forms a companion piece to Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist, his long-form conversation with the filmmaker about everything from faith to brain surgery. Here, across five chapters, he let Shatner lead the conversation across three days of interviews on an empty sound stage. It is Shatner, metaphorically naked. “After 91 years on this planet, what does he think about?” Philippe said. “There’s an incredible amount of thoughtfulness and introspection and humanity … Here’s a man who is interested in life, and in people.”
When it came to finding subjects for each chapter, Philippe was guided by Shatner’s most recent album, suitably and simply titled Bill. Deeply autobiographical and self-analytical, its themes of loneliness – a recurrent element of Shatner’s personal life and his creative career – became the basis for the fourth chapter. Yet Philippe was still caught off guard by Shatner’s openness. “He went to some pretty dark places, and I remember trying to pull him out of it, and it didn’t go well because he was in that space. In fact, right after we finished that chapter, our sound recordist came up to me and said, ‘I know that was really dark, but wait until you hear the quality of his voice. Now that was dark.'”
However, in the album and the film, there’s also a profound environmental message, often weighted in a grandfather’s concern for the world he will leave his descendants. Philippe said, “It’s about the living creatures, it’s about the trees, it’s about this connection with nature. … There’s always this light at the end of the tunnel for him, and I think that’s beautiful.”
Documentary Spotlight
You Can Call Me Bill
World Premiere
Thu 16, 7:30pm, Paramount Theatre
This article appears in March 10 • 2023.
