William Shatner Says Customs Agents Are Surprised He’s Still Canadian

William Shatner

William Shatner is proud of his Canadian passport.

On Thursday night, the “Star Trek” icon sat down for an hourlong discussion onstage with Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Tim League at SXSW and talked about his roots.

“You’re a distinctly Canadian human being,” League noted.

Shatner, who hails from Montreal and still has who sisters there who he visits often, admitted that he has tried to eliminate the “aboots” from his speech, though he hasn’t abandoned his Canadian-ness.

“I still have my Canadian passport,” he said, adding that when he crosses the border, customs agents will often exclaim with surprise, “Oh my god, you’re still Canadian!”

The 91-year-old actor also looked way back to the beginnings of his career in Montreal children’s theatre.

“Good lord man, you’ve been doing your homework,” Shatner told League when he broguht it up.

He then recalled as a kid going to a French-Canadian summer camp run on a country farm, describing the farmers slaughtering pigs and making blood pudding. It was also where he got his first feelings of really wanting to be an actor.

“I made the audience cry because of some of the words they gave me to speak,” Shatner said, remembering his father proudly picking him up and telling him, “My boy, Bill!”