George Takei did not hold back in an interview on Monday as he appeared to call out his former “Star Trek” cast member William Shatner for being a “cantankerous old man.”
Takei alluded to Shatner in an interview with The Guardian, describing the former Enterprise captain as “a prima donna.”
“He was self-involved,” the Japanese American actor said of a younger Shatner. “He enjoyed being the centre of attention. He wanted everyone to kowtow to him.”
Takei said he believes that none of the former “Star Trek” cast members got along with Shatner.
Promoting his new memoir, “Boldly Go, Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder,” Shatner told The Times that his fellow actors have used his name for “publicity.”
“Sixty years after some incident they are still on that track,” he said. “Don’t you think that’s a little weird? It’s like a sickness.”
Shatner added, “George has never stopped blackening my name. These people are bitter and embittered. I have run out of patience with them. Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?”
Takei hit back, saying that he’s done mentioning Shatner’s name in interviews.
“I know he came to London to promote his book and talked about me wanting publicity by using his name,” he said. “So I decided I don’t need his name to get publicity. I have much more substantial subject matter that I want to get publicity for, so I’m not going to refer to [Shatner] in this interview at all. Although I just did.”
Takei continued, “He’s just a cantankerous old man and I’m going to leave him to his devices. I’m not going to play his game.”
The longstanding feud between the two actors has gone on for decades. The original “Star Trek” series they starred in ended in 1969, and their last movie together for the sci-fi franchise was 1991’s “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”
In 2021, Takei poked fun at Shatner for flying to space in Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.
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