Star Trek veteran Williams Shatner, 93, names his ‘toughest’ acting job ever (hint: it involves bugs)
As a lifelong fan and student of Hollywood lore, I can confidently say that William Shatner’s tales from the set of Kingdom of the Spiders are nothing short of astounding. The man has lived through some extraordinary experiences, but battling 5,000 live tarantulas on a budget must surely rank among his toughest challenges yet.
William Shatner has named his hardest job in his 70-year acting career.
He said one of his toughest ever shoots was on the 1977 film Kingdom Of The Spiders because he had to be covered in real tarantulas.
In a science-fiction horror movie located in the countryside of Verde Valley, Arizona, beset by lethal tarantulas, the venerable 93-year-old Hollywood figure played the role of veterinarian Dr. Robert ‘Rack’ Hansen.
In the show, Woody Strode portrayed Walter Colby, a resident farmer, while Tiffany Bolling took on the role of archaeologist Diane Ashley.
Walters is startled as his livestock mysteriously perish at the hands of an unidentified beast. After sending a specimen to a university lab for examination, Dr. Hansen arrives to reveal to Walter that his animals met their untimely end due to spider venom, leaving everyone in disbelief.
The discovery of the killer spiders has fatal consequences for the town.
In order to capture the scenes featuring tarantulas, director John ‘Bud’ Cardos opted against using fake spiders and instead arranged for approximately 5,000 live tarantulas to be bought for filming. This decision accounted for nearly one tenth of the $500,000 budget on purchasing arachnids.
Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner, has shared that working with tarantulas was just as terrifying as it appeared on screen, as these spiders would lose their urticating hairs which caused intense itching for him and the rest of the cast.
During his interview on The Drew Lane Show, Shatner mentioned that in the movie “Kingdom of the Spiders,” the spiders, which were actually tarantulas, were not fake; they didn’t use mechanical limbs or props to make them appear real.
‘From time-to-time, on screen, they would dump a big bag of tarantulas over my head.
Additionally, these creatures don’t just have tiny, pointed nails that enable them to climb virtually anything, but their fur is also transformed into an irritating substance akin to itching powder. Consequently, any rubbish they scatter on my head results in an unpleasant appearance.
One issue encountered with tarantulas on set was their reluctance to approach their “targets” or victims, as they were typically skittish around humans.
Since these creatures are cannibalistic, it was necessary to provide an individual housing for each of the 5,000 spiders to prevent them from preying on each other.
Previously, it was disclosed that William Shatner, renowned globally for embodying Captain James T. Kirk in the original 1960s Star Trek TV series and subsequent movies like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, had also experienced being nibbled on by his unusual co-stars.
Speaking about the Kingdom of the Spiders, a Shout! Factory TV Original, he mentioned that it’s natural for people to feel fearful when encountering creatures that have many legs and move quickly.
After discovering that its sting is similar to a bee sting, I realized that a tarantula’s bite isn’t particularly painful.
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2024-11-13 20:09