Up Till Now: The Autobiography

for romance. I always suspected there was a connection between you and that man. That you got something you didn’t get from me.”
    “I probably do. But gosh, what I get from you, Denny. People walk around today calling everyone their best friend. The term doesn’t have any real meaning anymore. Mere acquaintances are lavished with hugs and kisses upon a second or at most third meeting, birthday cards get passed around offices so everybody can scribble a snippet of sentimentality for a colleague they barely met, and everyone just loves everyone. As a result when you tell someone you love them today, it isn’t heard much. I love you, Denny, you are my best friend. I can’t imagine going through life without you as my best friend. I’m not going to kiss you, however.”
    The relationship between Denny Crane and Alan Shore never could have worked if James Spader and I hadn’t become friends. I mean, him I don’t love. But certainly I like him and respect him greatly. I remember the day we met, I extended my hand. “Hi. Bill Shatner.”
    We shook. “James Spader.”
    I asked, “Is it James or can I call you Jimmy?”
    And he replied firmly, “No. It’s James.”
    My kind of guy. “Well, in that case,” I told him, “perhaps I should be called William.”
    Among the many things I enjoy about ...James, is that he makes me appear much closer to normal than might otherwise be true. Like me, he’s a sensualist; especially about food and drink and other people. He’s self-taught and extremely knowledgeable about a great range of subjects. On the set we have great rapport—and of course I enjoy teasing him. And perhaps he’ll tell you what I tease him about in his autobiography.
    James is a very precise person. When planning a vacation in Europe, for example, he’ll book a reservation in a restaurant weeks in advance and actually decide what he will order. Unlike me, who simply goes into a restaurant when I’m hungry and eats... something.
    But as far as I’m concerned it’s the very best something anybody has ever had at any time. Really, you have to try this something, I promise you you’ve never tasted something like it before. You have to try it, you must.
    He’s a wonderful actor, an award-winning television and movie star known for the quirky parts he has played. What makes our onscreen relationship work so well is that the way we approach a script reflects the way we experience life. James’s desire is to set his performance, usually at home. By the time we start rehearsing he has already decided how he wants to read a line and what he wants to do physically. If he sets a move he doesn’t want to vary it: this is where I’m going to stand, this is where I’m going to be looking, this is how I’m going to read that line. And I’m going to do it that way every time.
    Or so I thought. But one day James and I sat down—although not on the famous office balcony where we conclude each show—and discussed the technique of acting. It was fascinating for me to see how we both got to the same moment. “I meticulously prepare the text,” James explained. “I go over and over and over it for hours at a time. I don’t have to think about the words at all.
    “Therefore, when I get to the set, because I’m so familiar with the character, I’m ready for anything my character might want to do. Anything.”
    What James was saying, or perhaps what I heard him say, is that he spends a tremendous amount of time preparing to be spontaneous. That preparation allows him to inhabit the character. But the character is on his own.
    I like to ad-lib. Not with the words—especially not with the words on Boston Legal because of the quality of our writers. Generally there is nothing an actor can do that will benefit those words, except say them exactly as they are written. I have noticed that when I do change a word or two it does make a difference; the lines are so beautifully crafted that if I say “we” instead of “I” I might change the rhythm. Maybe the joke is not quite as sharp or the timing is slightly off, so I learn the exact words and I say them exactly as they have been written. So my improvisation is in the emotion; in the way I recite the lines. Once I have the lines down I’ll experiment with variations. That’s the way I examine a role, I hear all the possibilities and within each one a slightly different meaning. For me, that’s the fun of acting. The words aren’t ad-libbed, the