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This is
Joe from Lethal Death dot com talking
with Bruce Campbell. It is March 11th,
2002. I just want to thank you very
much for talking with me today. |
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You betcha,
baby. |
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I honestly
thought that my request was gonna be
laughed off. |
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Well,
sometimes it is. Ya know? There's always
an element of that where you go "No
fuckin' way, Jack." |
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Jan was
just all too helpful though....all of
us at Lethal Death dot com appreciate
it greatly. |
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Good,
so get onto it already. |
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We're
gettin' onto it, here we go. A couple
of us at Lethal Death have caught your
past couple appearances in Dallas, one
of which was the A-Kon a few years back...now
how was it for you when you first started
attending the conventions? |
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Oh, I
did that back in '88. Yeah, my first
one was in Los Angeles in '88. They're
a trip. They're a hoot. I don't mind
'em. They don't creep me out, they don't
scare me, they don't do anything. I
think they amuse me. Those are your
clients. Ya know? Why wouldn't you wanna
have rabid clients who would...ya know....even
if you make a piece of shit movie, they'll
still see it. I can't really complain
about that. You have to take the bad
with the good. |
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I think
that they're so faithful to you...because
from the work they've seen you do. They
enjoy on just another level besides
acting. They really feel that they see
another side of you. Now, is there a
personal side of you that's put into
the parts that you play? |
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There's
no way for an actor to escape it. I
don't give a crap what they say. No
actor can escape from himself. You're
just....that's how you portray a bad
guy or how you portray a good guy. It's
all based on your own sensibilities.
So, ya know, you can talk that topic
to death, but, I think there's always
an element of -- every time you see
a Kevin Costner movie, even if you see
a Dustin Hoffman movie, who's considered
one of our great actors -- he's Dustin
Hoffman! And I like him because of it.
I don't need him to hide... You know
a guy who's a pretty good chameleon
is Billy Bob Thornton. That guy's scary.
Where you go, "That's Billy Bob?"
And this other guy... what's his name...
Gary Oldman. Hold on one moment. |
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Sure.
[Joe gets put on hold. By Bruce Campbell.] |
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I’m
back. |
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Gary Oldman,
yes, I agree, he's a chameleon. |
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He's really
good. |
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Now the
second time a couple of us saw you,
you were doing your book tour here in
Dallas. Now I want to thank you for
putting me on page 237 with my e-mail,
that was a hoot. |
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Oh are
you? You're on 237? |
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Yeah,
beginning of chapter 40. |
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Which
one was it? |
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Basically
asking you for some acting tips -- |
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Oh yeah,
or tips of how to get the ladies. Either
one is fine. |
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Either
one's fine. I'm hoping it gets me the
girls if I'm in acting. Now, the book
was awesome. The book was great. It
was cool to see the cycle of how it
started off, how you guys -- you and
Sam and Rob -- you guys were making
films just to have fun. And then you
got into wanting to act and make a living
at it and become a huge superstar. But
then in the end -- |
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Don't
use that term. The word "superstar"
should never be used by anyone. Related
even to guys like Michael Jackson. It’s
too stupid of a name. |
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It was
interesting to see that you had kinda
come back to your roots to doing the
stuff that you wanted to do. That you
enjoyed doing. |
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Yeah,
that's what it ultimately boils down
to. Sometimes you have to take a big
route to figure that out. A big circuitous
route
[Ed: Bruce Campbell said "circuitous"
in a sentence!]. |
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And you
definitely took that route. |
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Oh you
know, started from low-budget independent,
I got into different types of independents,
with different filmmakers. and then
I got into TV, and some bigger features,
and y'know, after you do enough of it,
after you do a sitcom and a TV movie
and a one-hour episodic, or a half-hour
comedy, once you sorta cover the bases,
then my feeling is you look around and
say "okay, I’ve been doing
this for X amount of years, what do
I like about it?" because I just
had a long time with my manager recently,
there are certain things I’m just
not interested in anymore. I’m
just bored! I’m bored! And I can't
do 'em anymore. |
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What was
it you preferred the most? Film or television? |
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I like
the speed of TV. Because it's so quick.
I like the thoroughness of features
but they're so slow. I get impatient.
I want it to go faster; I want to shoot
the rehearsal. |
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Congratulations
on the success of the book. Any plans
for the paperback? |
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Yeah,
it comes out this fall. I’ll be
on a two month tour, to be posted on
the site, starting kind of late August
through the end of October. Many cities,
many many many cities. |
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Any added
bonuses to the paperback? |
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Yeah,
I’m writing 40 new pages, roughly,
and it's all about the tour. It’s
called "Chins across America."
it's all the wacky, zany antics that
happen on a book tour. And there's plenty
of 'em. |
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What was
the zaniest on there? |
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I don't
think there's any one zaniest, but y'know,
kid comes up to the table and he throws
the book down and he says "hey,
sign my book." I say, "Well
okay pal, what's your name?" and
he says "Ash." and I say "ha
ha, very funny. What’s your name?"
and he goes "that's my name, my
parents named me after your stupid movie." |
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[laughter] |
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I signed
a guy's fake leg. I signed everything,
all kinds of things. Meeting guys with
weird jobs was fun. This one guy, his
job is to monitor space junk. And he
warns satellite owners that there's
a big piece coming at it and they better
move it. So that's why when you get
weird cell service, or suddenly everything
freaks out, I think that's because they're
moving 'em. Those early flights were
quote unquote "dirty," they
launched a bunch of shit in places where
they shouldn't have, and so it stayed
in the atmosphere. And even a fleck
of paint is moving at about six times
faster than the speed of a bullet. A
fleck of paint has actually hit the
shuttle -- and y'know, it's dangerous.
There you go. I wouldn't have known
that if I hadn't gone on a book tour. |
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Wow. That’s
incredible. |
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Almost
got arrested near Dick Cheney’s
residence. But I won't go into that. |
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Oh come
on! |
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I always
go for walks – that’s my diversion,
there's nothing else to do, so I just
walk. So in Washington DC I took a long
walk along Embassy row, where all the
embassies are. And I didn't know Dick
Cheney lived out there. I came across
this amazingly fortified place; it looked
like a Spielberg movie. There were bright
beams of light shining out from the
ground in your face, so you couldn't
see in. there were guys patrolling with
dogs both behind the fence and in front
of the fence. One guy walked past me
and I was like "good evening,"
and he was programmed not to respond. |
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[laughter] |
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And I
was like, "what's the big frickin'
deal? What butthead lives here?"
then I saw it was the naval observatory,
where they have one of the atomic clocks.
And I asked the guy the next day "who
cares about the atomic clock? Why do
they guard it so much?" and he
said, "It’s not the clock,
it's Dick Cheney." I said "Ooooooh." |
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While
you were out touring the book, the events
of September 11 took place. Where were
you, and how did that affect your tour? |
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I have
two strange memories of the World Trade
Center. My birthday, June 22nd, was
during the book tour. That’s where
I signed on my birthday, in the world
trade center. |
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Wow. |
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And so
every birthday that rolls around now,
I’ll always think of the World
Trade Center. So my birthday is now
permanently attached to the World Trade
Center. |
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I’m
sorry. |
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I had
a very positive book signing. It was
a very good turnout, they were very
professional, they brought me a cake.
It was perfect. They were on the Mezzanine
level and I can only assume that they
got out. |
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I hope
so. |
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And then
on the actual day, everyone remembered
what they were doing. I was making love
to my wife in the morning. So that's
my first impression of 9/11. So we found
out about it after the fact -- it was
the one time we decided to drive.
And everyone thought that we had been
flying, so I was getting all these phone
calls. "You’re not flying
are you? Are you flying?" I’m
like, "who cares? So what if we
fly or don't fly?" and they said,
"Well, you better turn on the TV." |
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Has that
affected the way you travel? |
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No. No,
I was very defiant as a matter of fact.
I was in Miami on the 14th; I flew from
my house to Miami three days later.
The second there was a flight out. I
was like, "you bastards, no one's
going to change my lifestyle." |
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That's
all they wanted to do. |
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Well,
I don't know what they wanted to do.
But the point is, no, it was all business
as usual. And I told people, it's okay
to laugh, and it's okay to get out,
and it's okay to see your friends. Don’t
go crawling into a hole here. You gotta
live your life, you gotta move on. |
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Are there
any plans for another book to be written? |
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Yeah,
I’m pitching ideas left and right.
I just have to get publishers to buy
into it. Foolish me, I thought "ah,
we have a successful book. I’ll
just go back to my publisher, pitch
them an idea, and they'll say yes."
and they said "no" to the
first few ideas I gave them. I’m
saying that with a laugh. It just cracked
me up because it's just like the film
business. You have to prove yourself
every single time for every
single job. And that's what makes
the film business unique. If you're
a contractor, I don't say to the contractor,
"build me a wall, and I’ll
see if you can build one, and then I’ll
hire you." well as an actor, that's
what they tell you to do. That’s
what an audition is. "Show me that
you can build a wall and I’ll hire
you," and you say, "Why don't
you look at all the other walls I’ve
built? I built walls all over the place." |
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They want
you to build that special one for them. |
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It's because
they can get away with it. So many people
are so desperate and harried to become
actors that they can treat them like
that. I think fewer people should try
to be actors, that way there'd be fewer
of us. |
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[laughter]
Well I’m kind of discouraged by
that. I’m hoping that one day I
might be able to do something with that.
Which brings me to one of the best quotes
in your book, something that spoke to
me. “To one way of thinking, actors
have a charmed life. We are artists,
free to express childlike emotions,
and we are pampered beyond reason." |
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Right. |
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Now we
cut down a little bit, "to another
way of thinking, actors are a miserable
lot. They are insecure, vain and temperamental,
clawing about in a world more competitive
than almost any other profession. Actors
face rejection weekly and are willing
to tolerate years of subhuman living
conditions, all in the hopes of being
somebody. Still, 97% of them will fail.
On average." now, obviously, that's
spoken from someone who's seen both
sides of the wall. What kind of advice
would you have for someone who really
is trying to get in there? |
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Ignore
all advice. Including mine. If that's
what you wanna do, do it. It’s
not something to draw up two columns,
where you say "I will be an actor"
in column A, and in column B "I
will not be an actor." it's no
the type of job where you go, "well,
if I were an actor, this would be a
positive, and this would be a negative."
it's not that logical. My feeling is,
if you ask yourself the question of
"should I be an actor?" then
you've already failed the test. In certain
professions I think it really helps
to have a DNA chip in your head, something
that says "you must do this."
that's what we did. In Detroit Michigan,
we were like, "we made Super 8
movies, and we're going to make a feature
film in Detroit? That actually gets
shown in theaters? Are you out of your
mind? It’s not possible. They won't
let you." whoever "they"
was. |
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But you
proved it was possible. |
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Yeah,
sure, but it's no different from the
Rocky thing. You just wanna go the distance.
I happen to like America; I think it's
a really cool place. And it's one of
the few places where you can get away
with crap like that. You can come up
with an idea, create an entity to raise
money, raise money, do it, and sell
it. It’s the American way. Too
many filmmakers are lazy today. and
there are not enough books out there
that explain -- which is part of the
reason that I wanted to write a book
-- there's not enough books out there
that explain that A) A lot of this is
a pain in the ass. B) A lot of it is
harder than you think. C) No one's waiting
for you. D) Make your own opportunity.
Don’t follow. We have too many
lemmings. We need more commanders. |
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Exactly. |
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I’ve
been reading these old books about these
old directors, John ford and William
Wellman, these guys who go back to the
silent days. These were tough motherscratchers.
If an actor gave them shit they would
punch 'em. They’d threaten
to put an executive in the hospital
if he came onto the set one more time.
I love those guys. Those guys got balls.
And now, it seems very namby-pamby,
where everybody has to be happy all
the time. |
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Where
an actor on a project -- someone who
hasn't been involved in the writing
or direction -- |
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Yeah,
now has all kinds of ideas. |
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Have all
kinds of creative control on a project,
too. It just doesn't seem to make sense. |
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My feeling
is this: They can have as much creative
control as they earn. If you want control
over the script, okay, are you ready
to write? Ten weeks? Can you commit
that time? Can you show up 9 to 5, or
whatever the hell your crazy writing
schedule is? Then I accept that. But
if you're saying, "I want to approve
the script," why don't you get
involved in the script process so that
you see how difficult it is to create
a good story? And how to structure it?
I had this one meeting with a director,
Ed Zwick. He did Glory and movies
like that. He said, when he did his
TV show Thirtysomething that
he created, he always encouraged the
actors to direct. After one episode
of directing, they never gave him shit
again. They went, "whoa, this is
a pain in the ass. I’m just gonna
sit here and say my lines." that's
what people don't realize, the amount
of coal mining they have to do as part
of the business. People from Kentucky
should make movies. |
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[laughter] |
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That's
what they do. That’s what it's
about. A lot of people, if they can't
raise money in the first month, they
throw their hands up and say "oh
my god, I can't do it!" it can
take years, pal. |
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You guys
spent quite a few years getting funding
for the first Evil Dead film. |
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About
four years, on and off, stop and start. |
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I couldn't
believe it took that long. |
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It's not
even that long, the funny thing is.
There’s a lot of Hollywood projects
that on average take three or four years.
That’s probably the average, from
development to shooting to getting out.
They’ll sit on a movie for six
months. I shot a movie a year ago February,
called Servicing Sarah, with
Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley. |
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I was
involved in that project too. |
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That sucker,
that won't come out until this summer.
That’s like a year and a half later.
And that's just after the movie was
shot. Probably took a year to develop
the script, they probably shopped around
for a year. Again, that's three and
a half years. |
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That’s
a perfect example though, since I have
firsthand experience with that production
company. |
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What’d
you do on that? |
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Well I
did a little scene with Vincent Pastore,
in the hotel. Basically he just leaves
huffing and puffing, and I sit there
and do the usual thing I do on films,
I don’t do anything. I just kind
of react. But, you're right, though.
Where the feature productions move a
lot slower. My experience on Walker:
Texas Ranger, they kinda fly right
through. |
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Walker's
a joke. Walker's the extreme,
that's the wrong example. Walker's
too fast. It’s like, "Chuck's
gotta be outta here by noon, let's go!"
"How was that? Was it focused?
Good, let's go!" |
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You've
got another film coming up, besides
Serving Sarah. |
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Now it's
called Serving Sarah, yeah. |
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Now this
other project called Bubba Hotep,
tell me about it. |
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It's the
weirdest script I’ve ever read.
So I thought, "I have to do this."
Don Coscarelli is directing it, he did
the Phantasm movies, and Joe Lansdale
wrote an original story that Don adapted.
It’s basically, Elvis Presley is
68 years old, he's still alive, he's
in an east Texas rest home, he has cancer
on his penis and he's dying. |
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[laughter]
Oh my God. |
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And he's
regretting every minute of his life.
What happened was, he swapped with an
Elvis impersonator. He made a deal,
he wanted out. It was getting too crazy.
So he swapped with an Elvis impersonator,
who was the best of them, so he signed
a deal, so that Elvis became an Elvis
impersonator, and could just do that
county fair thing. Because that's what
he really liked. Things weren't getting
too crazy, and [sinking into Elvis voice]
the colonel wasn't in his face, man.
[Normal voice] but then he fell off
a stage, broke his hip and fell into
a coma. Wakes up 20 years later, and
that's where we find him. He meets Ossie
Davis at the rest home. And Ossie Davis
thinks he's Jack Kennedy. |
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[laughter]
Oh no. |
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He thinks
they've dyed him black and they've got
part of his brain alive on batteries
back at the White House. He’s also
convinced that there's a mummy, sneaking
into the rest home at night and sucking
the souls out of the old people. It
turns out that he's right. Because
they find hieroglyphics written on the
shithouse wall. And so he translates
them, and it turns out this mummy's
talking trash. And so, Elvis and Jack
Kennedy team up and take him out. |
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Right
on! |
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Elvis
redeems himself. He can finally do stuff
on his own, because people always did
stuff for him. [Elvis voice] but now
man it's his own, it's his own thing. |
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Now, you
did the film Escape from LA with
Kurt Russell who does a mean Elvis impression.
You guys have like a little Dueling
Banjos of Elvis when you worked on that? |
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No, no.
Normally you don't come up to an actor
and say "Hi, do your Kurt Russell." |
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[laughter] |
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But no
one's played Elvis voice at 68. So I
hold a unique spot. Plus, no one can
say my imitation sucks, because my response
would be "well, he's 68. He’d
be a little crankier, he'd be a little
slower." he wouldn't be the [Elvis
voice] King of Swing, man. |
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He'd be
the King of Depends by 68. |
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That's
right. |
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I got
a couple reader questions, people from
the website who posted questions that
they want me to ask you. This one comes
from Shana Wesfalen [email address removed],
she asks, "Are you still as ripped
as you are shown to be in the Army
of Darkness movie poster?" |
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The answer
is I was never was as ripped as I was
in the Army of Darkness poster
because it was never my idea. They took
a reference photograph of my head in
the studio, in north Hollywood. They
wanted to do that National Lampoon
gag; they have Chevy Chase up there
looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It was never our idea, so I don't feel
bad about it at all. |
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Well,
it's classic. The next question comes
from Slayer Xena [email address removed],
and they ask, "If you could have
any role in any movie in history up
until now, what would you choose, and
why?" |
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I wouldn't
choose it, because it's already been
done. If it's already been done, I don't
wanna do it. Because then you're sitting
around thinking about the best role,
and your job as an actor is to make
the best role even out of a crappy part.
Find something, find something to do,
some bit, some something. Don’t
wait for some great role to be handed
to you. That's the mark of a good actor,
is my feeling. You take anything, and
try and pull something out of your butt. |
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And try
to make it your own. |
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Mmhmm. |
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We're
pretty much set, Bruce. Thank you very
much. |
|
Thank
you sir, have a good afternoon. |
