Mark Walters interviews Bruce Campbell

Interview by Mark Walters

Just about any horror movie fan worth their salt knows the name Bruce Campbell well. Aside from being the star of the EVIL DEAD movies and ARMY OF DARKNESS, the man has solidified his position as a fan-favorite actor. Over the years he has starred in a wide variety of films and television shows. Many remember him as the charming but troublesome thief Autolycus on HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS and XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS. He also tends to pop up in several projects from the Coen brothers and director Sam Raimi, even if just for a cameo. A few years ago he wowed audiences once again playing an elderly version of Elvis in BUBBA HO-TEP, which like many of this man's films has become a cult classic. Bruce may just be the most likable and most recognized B-movie actor working today. This September sees the release of MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN on the Sci-Fi Channel, a film that Campbell both directed and stars in. The advance word is it's going to be total greatness. I had a chance to sit down and talk with "The King" during his recent MAKE LOVE THE BRUCE CAMPBELL WAY book signing in Dallas.

MARK: Tell me about the new book. What can people expect to see in it?

BRUCE: They can expect to see a lot of graphics in the book, and it'll take 'em about an hour to read. I think a sixth grader could put up with this book. So hopefully that won't be intimidating when they open it up.

MARK: How do you enjoy the experience of writing books? After doing your first one and now doing this one, is it something you want to see yourself doing a lot more of?

BRUCE: I'm happy to do it, but economics tend to determine creative decisions. So we'll have to see how this one does. You know this is the first novel. The first book was written out of being pissed off basically, that no one covered the other side of the tracks. No one covered the rest of the people in the film business, so I thought I'd write about that. And then this book came out of the fact that the first book did surprisingly well for the publisher. And they were like "What else ya got?" So we had to come up with an idea. We'll see what happens. I enjoyed the process very much. The two books are very different. Because with the first book, I could look at a business journal and figure out what I did September 12, 1983. But this one of course had to come out of my head. So this was a little more difficult, but also pretty liberating, cause I wasn't restricted by anything, other than the fact that the prime directive was to make fun of Hollywood.

MARK: Do you see yourself writing more books like this in the future?

BRUCE: I see myself doing that, but the publisher has to see me doing that first.

MARK: Right.

BRUCE: I'm a realist in that respect. I have plenty of ideas.

MARK: How has the initial response been so far?

BRUCE: Good, we're in our third week on the New York Times bestseller list.

MARK: Awesome.

BRUCE: And we got on earlier I think than the first book, so indications would be good.

MARK: So what can you tell me about MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN?

BRUCE: It's 88 minutes of raw dynamite.

MARK: Yeah?

BRUCE: It's the story of greed, betrayal and revenge set in Bulgaria. It's a pharmaceutical executive who goes to take advantage of the crumbling Bulgarian infrastructure, like they do. Large companies do that for diversification and tax breaks. And he inadvertently gets half of the brain of a former KGB operative. So the capitalists and the communists have to reconcile their differences to find the evil gypsy woman that killed them both. So go figure.

MARK: Do the origins of that start with the Dark Horse comic, or did it start the other way around?

BRUCE: No, the Dark Horse comic was adapted from the screenplay. Which made it very easy to do the comic, we just had to smash it into the four-issue format.

MARK: You've done a little bit of writing in comic books as well. Is that something you enjoy doing, and do you see yourself doing more of that?

BRUCE: Well there you go with the "see yourself" thing again. I see myself doing a lot of things. Comics are good. It's a brand new experience, wholesome different parts of your brain. Comics are very difficult, because you have to match 22 pages, X amount of panels per page, X amount of dialogue, so I found it very difficult actually. I wrote THE HIRE, that's part of their series for BMW, which was cool. So yeah, I hope to do more. It was nice to write a comic where I drag a BMW into Detroit, my hometown, which doesn't like BMWs, and have fun with it

MARK: If given the opportunity would you like to handle some of the big iconic superheroes?

BRUCE: Nope. Don't like superheroes. They bore the crap out of me. I'd rather do a story about a garage mechanic. Cause I can't relate to a guy who is from planet Mush-Mush and is affected by Kryptonite. Or a guy who dresses up as a bat, that just doesn't make any sense to me. So I'm much more interested in the average joe. I'd like to do a comic series about an average person who is thrust into extreme circumstances. I'd be much more interested in that.

MARK: I'm not gonna ask you about the same old thing, which is are you going to do another EVIL DEAD sequel...

BRUCE: You can ask, you're just going to get the same answer.

MARK: Right. I would rather ask you if you and Sam Raimi, have you guys talked about doing maybe a different type of film together? Maybe a different kind of project?

BRUCE: He's kind of on the A-train right now. We'll see where Sam goes. But he's so involved with the SPIDER-MAN films. Those are such huge movies. He's not doing anything for two more years. Cause you gotta follow it through, you gotta travel the world promoting it. You know we have a great relationship, and we enjoy working together, so I hope that something will come of it. But we both kind of get busy.

MARK: We're going to see you soon in SKY HIGH right?

BRUCE: Yeah, SKY HIGH I think is July 29th, and then THE WOODS is sometime I think in the fall, the early fall.

MARK: And let's not forget your voice in the new EVIL DEAD video game! Do you have any involvement with the EVIL DEAD remake that's coming out?

BRUCE: We're gonna be involved in it. I won't be in it, Sam won't direct it. You know it will probably be starring Ashton Kutcher or something. I'm happy to let some other poor slob get covered with blood. But I don't even know that there's going to be a character named Ash.

MARK: Oh is that right?

BRUCE: You can just have a movie called EVIL DEAD about evil dead things, but it doesn't have to be that story. So that's probably a year or so away.

MARK: So people can check out more about you on brucecampbell.com?

BRUCE: If you don't put the hyphen in you get a Dodge dealership in Michigan.

MARK: Is that right?

BRUCE: Yeah, so you better put the hyphen in.

MARK: Bruce hyphen Campbell dot com.

BRUCE: That's the address.

MARK: Thanks Bruce, I really appreciate it.

BRUCE: Thank you.

Check out BRUCE CAMPBELL'S official website HERE.

Check out info on the new THQ game EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION HERE.

Special thanks to the kind folks at Barnes and Noble (especially Maureen and Elese) on Northwest Highway and 75. When in Dallas, please visit their store.

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