The Bruce Campbell Interview
This month, we were fortunate enough to be able to spend some cybertime with the talented Bruce Campbell.
The star of the cult movie favorite "The Evil Dead" trilogy and TV's "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." is a very, very busy man these days.
He has recurring roles in TV's "Ellen", "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman".
Bruce is also appearing in Disney's remake of "The Love Bug", in the new NBC movie "Jeff & Jill", in the movie version of "McHale's Navy", in Showtimes "Menno's Mind" and in the new Kurt Russell vehicle "Escape From L.A.". Now that's a heavy work load.
| TVNow: | Recently, you have been on TV in
"Xena", "Ellen" and "Lois & Clark" while also working in Disney's new
"The Love Bug", Showtime's "Menno's Mind" and the new "McHales
Navy". Do you ever confuse one role with another? | |
| Bruce: | Not really. I
just think it's important to test your range as actor as much as possible.
What an actor is, in theory, is someone who can play any of a number of
different types of characters. Personally, I'm always happy to do a role that is completely different than the one before it. But, let's not forget, in my mind it's, "Okay, I'm a sailor - what would he be like - or I'm a bad cop - How bad?" Etc. | |
| TVNow: | You are a frequent Internet user
and answer your own email. With everything that you have been doing
lately, how do you find time for the Internet? | |
| Bruce: | I make it a
point to go on line for an hour a day. It's just become part of my daily
routine. Sometimes, I split it up - time in the morning - and some in the
evening. | |
| TVNow: | In this highly conservative
political season, violence in TV and film has been the target of almost
all politicians. In a movie like "Die Hard", there is much death centered around situations that can actually occur in today's terrorist occupied world. In your film "Army of Darkness", there is much death and violence; yet the situations are set in a fictional world and often laced with humor. Do you have any problem doing either type of violent film? | |
| Bruce: | Personally, I
could do without the mean-spirited kill, kill, kill, grimace, and turn the
gun sideways while you shoot type action films. That genre is always
trying to outdo the one before it (which probably sucked in the first
place), and they're becoming more and more ridiculous. Whether or not violence in movies contributes to violence at home, I don't know. But, I think unrealistic violence has less of a lingering impact than the "6:00 news" reality-based violence. | |
| TVNow: | In your career to date, what role
are you the most proud of and why? | |
| Bruce: | Well, Brisco is
the sort of character I'd like to play again. He was interesting,
hopefully, as interesting as the bad guys. He was smart and could stick up
for himself. My kids could watch with me, and his character wasn't
boring. Other than that, I enjoyed working with Sam Raimi and the Coen brothers. | |
| TVNow: | You supplied a voice for the CD-Rom
game "Cold Blooded". How do you set the emotions needed in voice-only work
when there is no cast to work with? | |
| Bruce: | Well, it all
falls under the category of make-believe. Having done a lot of EFX films,
I'm used to acting by myself in a blank sound stage anyway.
| |
| TVNow: | When you first started in films,
you and Sam Raimi were able to make films using meager funds and a lot of
sweat. In today's Hollywood, it takes millions just to think about
starting a movie. Do you think it is possible today for someone else to gain success in movies working like you and Sam did then? | |
| Bruce: | Heck yeah, a
buddy of mine just shot a really cool movie called "Running Time" (look
for it, and me in it) for one-third of the cost of the original "Evil
Dead." You don't have to spend millions and millions. Think about it, there are single shots in big budget crappy movies that cost more than the entire budget of really good independent films. It's not the amount of money you have that ultimately matters, it's what you can do with what you have. Films like "Slacker," "Clerks," "El Mariachi," and "The Brothers McMullen" are all good recent examples of successful "no budget" films. |
Not wanting to take a lot of Mr. Campbell's time, we made our interview brief.
Our hope is that you have learned something new about him based on the type of questions that we asked.
Thanks for taking the time to visit our site.
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