Bruce Campbell – A Geek Household Name
I think that we can all talk openly here about our mutual love of all things Bruce Campbell. I can still remember where I was when I first saw the box art for Evil Dead 2 and tried to conjure ways of convincing my parents to let me rent the film. Years later, it would be that same film that drove me to enroll in film school and that opened a door to a million other geek interests. It’s pretty clear that there would be no Geekscape without the Evil Dead films. And there would be no Evil Dead without Bruce Campbell.
Campbell has appeared in countless films since those early horror films and pubished two best selling books. Today, his latest directorial effort (in which he also stars as himself), My Name Is Bruce, hits theaters in its months-long tour across the United States. I’ll be seeing the film here in Los Angeles when it arrives in December, but earlier this week, Bruce was nice enough to take a few minutes of his time and answer some of our eargent questions. Enjoy.
So Bruce, why don’t you tell us about this movie you’ve got coming out: My Name Is Bruce? You’re directing this one too right?
Yes. I directed it, produced it. The whole thing. I’m a one stop shop. It’s a movie that was brought to me by, the concept was brought to me by Mike Richardson of Dark Horse Comics and his writer buddy Mark Verheiden and I’ve worked with both these guys through comics and stuff a little bit in the past and we never did a movie together. And Mike knew that I wanted to direct, you know, low budget movies, and so they pitched the idea and I jumped all over it.
What was it like to have Mark and Mike come to you and say “listen, we’re going to make a movie about you and your movie career” knowing that it pokes fun at the b-movie stuff that you talk about in your books?
I encouraged it. I eventually got my hands on the script and made it worse! After Mark did his job on it, you know, as a filmmaker I had to do a production pass to adjust it to reality. Then I just did another pass as a “Bruce” pass of sort of making it more of how I would do it; how I would say stuff. You know all the stuff with making my stuff look bad, that’s a partnership between all of us. We’ve all teamed up to make my stuff look terrible.
And you’ve known Mike over at Dark Horse for a long time because of your work on Screaming Brain and those projects. What’s the relationship like.
He’s much taller than I am.
Yeah. I’ve seen him. He’s a pretty tall guy.
He’s a very tall man, yes. Mike is a lover of movies. He’s a fan of movies and it’s great to work with a guy who is your partner. He put the deal together. He got the money. And to have a guy like that who can get money who you can have a rational conversation with is a real treat. I may be hanging onto Mike’s pants for a little while.
Well, Guillermo Del Toro’s going to do the Hobbit. Maybe you should start asking him for Hellboy.
[laughs] I think Hellboy can be Hellboy. I’ll let them do Hellboy.
You don’t wanna direct it?
No, thank you. Those movies have too many special effects. You’re not really directing. You’re sort of storyboarding.
We talked to Mike Mignola and he agreed: you for Lobster Johnson would be an okay choice. Are you familiar with any of the comics?
Not enough to comment on it.
Do you read any comics at all?
You know, when I was a kid I did and I didn’t read Spider-Man or any of those. I read Archie comics. I never got into the crazy weird comic world. I’ll leave that to Mike and Mark. I bring a dose of reality to these projecs.
We’ve got a couple fans who’ve asked a couple questions. One of them is that they enjoy your books and you’ve got two out, right? Is there anything on the horizon that isn’t a movie that you have coming up?
I have another idea for a book but it’s too much of a nebulous idea. It’s not really worth talking about but I am noodling about a new idea that eventually I will get around to.
We’ve got another fan asking about the possibility of Bubba Ho Tep 2 and the possibility of seeing you and Don Cascarrelli put that together.
Nope. It’s dead. It’s dead in the water. Only ‘cuz Don and I could not agree on what to do. He had a certain take that I didn’t agree with and I had a certain take that he didn’t agree with. And we thought ‘let’s not fight it out. Let’s not jeopardize any kind of a friendship. Let’s just let it go.’ So that’s what we did.
Any chance of you guys working together on something that isn’t related to Bubba Ho Tep?
That’s more likely. I think Don’s a really good filmmaker and I wish him all the best. It’s entirely possible. Because I like him. I like him as a filmmaker too. So something new might be fun.
What about working with Mark again? Our audience is pretty familiar with him because of the Battlestar Gallactica stuff.
I’d work with Mark again in a second. We’ve got a couple more ideas that we want to get around to and Mark’s a pretty good go to guy so I think that’s pretty likely.
He’s making a name for himself in TV. Any chance because we haven’t seen the finale of Battlestar Gallactica that you might pop your head up in an episode as a cylon or something?
No. Not a chance. [laughs] Hey, look. It has nothing to do with the show. I’m just busy doing other stuff.
I think they’ve shot every episode as well, so if it hasn’t happened by now… it’s not gonna happen.
Yeah. And I’ve got my own TV show. So I’m fine.
How’s Burn Notice going?
Going well. We just got picked up for a third seasons.
Wow. Congratulations.
So I’ll be going back to Miami in March to do that.
Who would actually win in a fight, because of the similarities of the shows: the characters from Burn Notice or The Equalizer? There’s a similarity there. It’s kind of the appeal of Burn Notice; it’s a lot like those earlier shows in character and structure but it’s really modernized and fun.
We would kick any of those guys’ asses. We’re spies, man! We’d kick anyone’s ass! We can do anything!
So when I first moved to Hollywood, I got a job working for [telefilm production company] Von Zernick Sertner. And I remember you were in a film for them called Tornado.
Yeah. Yeah. They made like twenty in a year at one point. And they don’t- I had script notes that I wanted to address and they were like “what? Why would you want to talk about the script?” They gave me a Tiffany pen. They were hoping to just shut me up with a Tiffany pen. They gave all the actors Tiffany pens. I’m like “dude, if you’d only taken that pen and written a script, then you’d have something.”
One of the things I did when I was working there was I had to mail out [broadcast announcement] postcards to everyone.
Oh, you were the one responsible for me getting all those damn postcards!
Well, for a period of a few months probably. But I remember writing a note to you on one of the postcards. [They both laugh] And the only other actor I did that to was Fred Savage. And the postcard got returned! So I thought I’d gotten away with it. And I remember being called into the office and they’re standing there with my postcard written to Fred Savage with the note. I don’t think he got as nice a note as you did. [Bruce laughs] I just remember thinking I was gonna get canned! That was one of the first Hollywood experiences was sending you that postcard from VZS.
Wonderfully obscure!
That’s really the Hollywood experience isn’t it? Sometimes you go between big projects and obscure projects. How do you balance that kind of work? Something high profile like the Spider-Man stuff that you’re a part of and Sam’s a part of and then stuff that’s maybe more of the fringe stuff where maybe you get a little more control and you get to have a lot more fun?
Well, that’s exactly it. And that’s why I’ll never leave the low budget independent world. It’s too much fun and it’s too much independence. I don’t like a lot of shit. I don’t like having to reshoot stuff because some jackass executive doesn’t like something. I’m like “tough. Let’s let the audience decide. This is a world I enjoy. Whether I’ll succeed in this world, I don’t know. But I like flying under the radar. It’s just a better way to go in my opinion.
You get weirder fans though, don’t you?
Um, no. just more loyal. I’m using “loyal” rather than “weird.
Anything that’s the weirdest they’ve ever asked you to sign?
It’s a lot of boobies. You sign a lot of boobies.
They do feel a kinship with you. They do feel pretty close to you. Any moments you’ve ever been worried?
No… but occasionally you get a woman, a very goth-type woman, will come up to a signing and one time she came up and she gave me this book of poetry and she goes “here’s some poetry you’ll really like” thinking that you are this person. Or thinking that you make horror movies so you must LOVE horror movies. And the poetry was so offensive! I read one paragraph and I threw it out! It was like torture porn kind of stuff. I was like “man, I appreciate you thinking that I like this but no thanks!” You really get caught by the persona sometimes. That’s really what the premise of My Name is Bruce is. It’s messing with persona, because people have a persona of me. And I’ve got my own version of myself. So My Name is Bruce is a completely new one to confuse everybody!
It’s a working formula. We’ve got The Three Amigos and films like that but you’ve taken it and you really play up that unique persona that you’ve made over the past twenty to twenty five years. Is there a next project that you think might work to break some of that or might work in line with that?
You know. It’s funny. If you try and do something different or serious, they don’t always follow it. They go “why don’t you make something fun again?” And then you make something fun again and they go “you know, you should do something that people will take more seriously.” You can’t really win. That’s why when our movies are done we don’t show previews. We don’t do focus groups. We just make the movie and just put it out. And I think it’s the best way to go. Filmmakers need to just make movies and get ‘em out. And if people like ‘em, great. If they don’t, that’s okay too.
But it keeps you working. You keep having fun by your own rules.
Yeah, and look, I like this type of material. Whether everyone likes it, no, they don’t. But I think enough people like it to keep me employed. That’s all I need. I don’t need. I don’t need to make an A-list movie.
One more from the audience and then I’ll let you go. In all your career, what was the best practical joke that you pulled on someone or someone pulled on you?
I pulled one on a friend of mine but it’s too long to explain. It’s a gag that took months and months to set up. I basically tried to get a buddy of mine extradited to Wyoming for abandoning a car. It was a long, convoluted setup and it took months to prepare special police documents, lawyers got involved. It was really a big, big deal. And I did it to a good friend of mine, David Goodman. And you can always do it to people who are gullible. Practical jokes only work on people who panic easily. And I knew this guy would. And so I followed up about ten years later by getting him arrested in Bulgaria. Or thinking he was being deported from Bulgaria. There are times when I’ve done some gags but they were pretty complicated.
I guess the payoff was well worth it though.
Oh yeah! The first gag, the payoff was massive. I got to sit and watch him open the letter that I had sent to him that set everything into motion. I asked to be there when he opened it so it was a good thing.
I’ll let you go, Bruce. Thanks a lot for answering our questions.
Alrighty. Thank you!
My Name Is Bruce opens today in New York City. The entire schedule for the My Name Is Bruce Tour is below. Check local listings for times and locations.
Friday, October 31st – New York, NY
Wednesday, November 5th – Philadelphia, PA
Friday, November 7th – Boston, MA
Friday, November 7th – Hartford, CT
Wednesday, November 12th – New Haven, CT
Friday, November 14th – Baltimore, MD
Friday, November 14th – Washington, DC
Wednesday, November 19th – Columbus, OH
Wednesday, November 19th – Toledo, OH
Friday, November 21st – Detroit, MI
Friday, November 28th – Chicago, IL
Friday, December 5th – Minneapolis, MN
Friday, December 12th – Seattle, WA
Friday, December 12th – Portland, OR
Wednesday, December 17th – San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, December 17th – Berkeley, CA
Friday, December 19th – Los Angeles, CA
