William Shatner Blasts Jim Carrey, Bill Nye, Jason Alexander for Their Captain Kirk Impressions

The original 'Star Trek' captain is none too pleased with the people impersonating his iconic character

BY Allie GregoryPublished Sep 17, 2021

William Shatner, Canadian actor and OG Captain Kirk, has sat down to watch a compilation of different actors and comedians doing their best impression of his iconic Star Trek character — and he wasn't exactly a good sport about being the butt of the joke.

The team at Vanity Fair presented Shatner with impersonations by Seth MacFarlane, Jason Alexander, John Belushi, Chris Pine, Jim Carrey, Bill Nye, Bruce Campbell, Freaks and Geeks actor Sam Levine and more, and while Pine and Belushi's impressions got the original Kirk's approval, many did not.

Shatner was outright offended by McFarlane's bit, and seemed to take personal offence to Alexander's impression, suggesting that the Seinfeld actor was making fun of him because Shatner stopped inviting him to his Monday night football gatherings. Shatner also called Levine "a toddler" and said that Carrey's Kirk "lacks a certain masculinity."

"Why do people do impressions of me? I don't know," Shatner ponders in the video. "They think they're being funny and I guess some of them are, but every time it happens, I nudge my wife who's usually sitting beside me and I say, 'What are they doing?' And she says, 'They're doing an impression of you.'"

He concluded: "And I don't see it. I don't, I don't see it."

At several points during the segment, when presented with footage, Shatner becomes irate with an off-camera producer named Max, whose patience with the actor is pretty remarkable. Watch the clip below.

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