Legally blind Calgary-born actor Bruce Horak to paint portrait of William Shatner

Actor and artist Bruce Horak, who was born in Calgary and was a cast member in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, is painting a portrait of William Shatner to raise funds for Shatner's charity. (Courtesy Bruce Horak)

A legally blind Calgary-born actor who plays a visually impaired character on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is painting a portrait of the legendary William Shatner.

Bruce Horak, who now calls Stratford, Ont., home, has been part of the creative team behind such hit Canadian plays as Rebecca Northan’s Blind Date, Goblin Macbeth and This is Cancer, and then in 2022, he found himself cast in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as Hemmer, the chief engineer on the Enterprise.

That brought him into the Star Trek universe and by virtue of geography into the orbit of a Stratford production company, Ballinran Entertainment, which produced The Captains, a documentary about all the actors who have played captains in the various Star Trek films and series over the years, interviewed by none other than Shatner.

As luck would have it, Ballinran became interested in doing a documentary about Horak, who was born in Calgary with retinal blastoma, which took away the sight in his right eye and 90 per cent of his vision in his left eye.

In addition to his impressive resume of stage achievements, back in 2010 Horak launched a project painting portraits.

For each sitting, he interviews his subject to get a sense of them--since he can’t see very much of them -- then returns to Stratford to paint their portraits in his studio.

“My portraits are kind of Bob Ross meets Spalding Gray meets the Travelling Wilburys,” Horak said.

When the Ballinran producers learned about the portrait project, and heard that Horak was taking a trip to L.A., they suggested he reach out to Shatner to see if he’d be interested in having his portrait done by a fellow Star Trek alum.

Horak then discovered that Shatner has been hosting an annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show since 1990 that donates money to dozens of different organizations – and offered to paint Shatner’s portrait and donate it to the charity.

“I asked him if he would sit (for me) and he said yes,” Horak said, “so there I found myself sitting in his office on Ventura Boulevard with his two Dobermans, talking about technology and Stratford (where Shatner acted in the 1960s before heading for Hollywood), aging and other stuff.

“And along the way,” he added, “I got to meet one of my all-time heroes.”

The two Star Trek alums didn’t actually talk about Star Trek but they talked about the possibilities presented by technology – retinal implants – that sound straight out of an episode of the show.

And one of Shatner’s favourite things to do, Horak added, was to ask his phone questions about various topics, then listen to the AI-generated response.

“I thought, ‘That’s so Captain Kirk,” Horak said.

Still working at 94

The latest wonder about Shatner is that he is 94 and still active, still working, still making things happen.

What’s his secret?

“He’s an infinitely curious individual,” Horak said. “When I sit with someone to paint them, I always ask, “How do you describe yourself to someone who can’t see?”

“He says he talks to people who say, if you can hang on a couple more years, you might last another 20, 30, 50 years due to changes in technology,” he said. “Things have changed in the world of aging. He said, ”I’m a healthy older version of my younger self."

“I hope I’m still that vital and curious when I’m that age.”

‘Looking down a milky straw’

As for himself, Horak may be legally blind, but the limited scope gives him a unique perspective on the world.

“My vision is like looking down a milky straw,” he said. Everyone he looks at, he explains that “(It’s) refracted and distorted with a colour around them -- almost like an aura.”

That unique experience is what prompted him to turn to painting.

“I started doing portraits as an attempt to describe how I see. It’s my way of trying to explain the unique challenges I face as an artist.

“Paintings and visual representation get to the heart of it.”

He started out in 2010 aiming for 1,000 portraits and has now completed close to 800.

He’s not alone in being an artist with a disability, either: Beethoven was deaf and composed symphonies. Monet had cataracts. Shatner has tinnitus, which impacts his hearing.

“It’s intriguing how artists with disabilities express themselves,” Horak said – although it’s also been normal for him his entire life.

“This has been my normal since I was a baby,” he said. “If you have any disability, it’s up to you to adapt.

“With technology changing, the playing field is levelling.”

‘Incredibly supportive’

As far as acting goes, Horak has a few tricks. One is to get to the set early to scope out the furniture.

“I had an acting teacher who once said, ‘Your job is to learn the lines and not bump into the furniture,‘” he said.

The other is a short list of soft skills that make some actors exceptional.

“Listening, responding, being present,” he said.

He said the experience of working with Star Trek on set was an exceptionally positive one.

“Star Trek was my first real experience in film and TV,” he said. “I found them to be incredibly supportive. I had an assistant to walk me to the trailer and set every day. They were really forthcoming, really hands on -- they were fully aware of my impairment.

“I was so grateful for the opportunity.”

And he says he’s an example of how DEI works – for everyone.

“When you design for disability, everyone benefits,” he said, pointing out that phone texting started as something to assist the hearing-impaired and now it’s for everyone.

Horak is creating two Shatner portraits – one for an online auction and one for the May 31 event itself – and then he’s performing the thriller Wait Until Dark at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake as well as co-creating Goblin Oedipus, with Northan after Goblin Macbeth became a smash hit across the country since its creation in 2019.

All of it figures to find its way into that documentary, which has a working title, he says.

“Going Boldly.”