Helen Noel actress defended William Shatner

William Shatner was “fantastic” according to the actress

Some actors who worked with William Shatner on Star Trek: The Original Series have had many negative things to say about him. George Takei said Shatner wasn’t a team player while James Doohan admitted that he liked Captain Kirk but wasn’t very fond of Shatner. And the list goes on.

One actress, though, who spent some time with Shatner while working on one episode of the series, called him “fantastic” over fifty years later. Marianna Hill, who played Helen Noel on the season one episode “Dagger of the Mind,” had to work extremely closely with Shatner as they shared several scenes together, and she made it clear that working with him wasn’t difficult.

Hill said William Shatner fought for his character

In the interview, Hill went on to say that people didn’t understand Shatner and even admitted that she wasn’t sure if she did, but she recognized his incredible drive. Her biggest piece of praise for him was when she corrected the people who called him temperamental.

"” He was great and he fought for his character and people didn’t understand that. They thought he was temperamental. He was not temperamental.”"

In reality, none of us really know what it’s like to work with the man who made Captain James T. Kirk a household name nor do we know what it’s like spending so many hours a day under bright lights, trying to recall lines of dialogue with a lot of technobabble. Acting might look like an easy job, but there’s evidence to support that it isn’t. What we do know is that William Shatner brought Captain Kirk to life, and for that, we’ll always be grateful.