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Salon Interviews Bruce Campbell
vonpookie writes "Salon has posted an interview with Bruce Campbell on the subject of his new book Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way, as well as on Tom Cruise, his career, and the realities of the movie biz." From the interview: "Q:Seriously. There was a hilarious interview with Cruise and Spielberg in Der Spiegel recently, reporting that there was a Scientology tent on the set of War of the Worlds, because in between shots Tom wanted to help people kick drugs and alcohol. A: I can believe that. That's fine; it's sort of a way of life for Tom. It's not really a charity. It's more like his religion. Q: He's got a reputation for it! A: Yeah, he's got a reputation for helping people. But my feeling is, 'Shut up and act.'"
"Shut up and act"
"Evil Dead" star Bruce Campbell discusses Tom Cruise, idiot film executives, his hilarious debut novel -- and the joys of not being famous.
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By Scott Thill
July 14, 2005 | There are some people who don't know who Bruce Campbell is, and there are others who will wait hours in line just to get next to him. The 47-year-old actor's uproarious roles in horror films like "Bubba Ho-Tep" and the essential "Evil Dead" franchise -- which he created along with his high school buddy and fellow Michigan native, director Sam Raimi -- have earned him a dedicated cult following. Indeed, legions of aspiring horror-show nuts have followed Campbell and Raimi, who parleyed his own "Evil Dead" accomplishments into a career helming Hollywood blockbusters like the "Spider-Man" movies, ever since the two do-it-yourselfers first decided to produce and shoot their own films instead of waiting for a billionaire studio to discover them.
"It's the old cliché about grabbing the bull by the horns," Campbell says. "There is no mystery to it, just an incredible amount of elbow grease, and most people just aren't built for that."
To be sure, Campbell's road, which has also included stops behind or in front of the camera at other fandom bonanzas like the "Hercules" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" television series, has not led directly to the Emerald City of the Hollywood mainstream. But that's fine by him. In fact, his new, side-splitting exercise in hard-boiled Hollyweird, "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way," shows just what kind of chaos can emerge when the straight-shooting icon known mostly by his "Evil Dead" alter ego (the actor-author feels compelled to sign his book jacket "Bruce 'Don't Call Me Ash' Campbell") enters the ranks of the Hollywood elite ruled by stars like Richard Gere and Renée Zellwegger.
Unlike his previous autobiographical tour de force, "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor" -- which became a national bestseller to the surprise only of those who haven't seen the "Evil Dead" films -- Campbell's newest book is straight-up fiction, a mash-up of noir action and gut-busting humor centered on the artist's long-awaited jump to the Big Time. In the book, he stars with Gere and Zellwegger in a Mike Nichols update of George Cukor's 1960 Marilyn Monroe vehicle, "Let's Make Love," a movie Gregory Peck abandoned because he famously felt the script was "about as funny as pushing Grandma down the stairs in a wheelchair."
Which, come to think of it, happens to Campbell in his new book, although he's no grandma and it's Richard Gere who eventually does the honors by throwing him down a flight of stairs. Still, that's just a taste of the abuse Campbell undergoes on his quixotic mission to make the A-list. For the entirety of "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way," its doomed protagonist spends more time getting his ass thoroughly kicked by any number of people rather than doing any actual acting. But perhaps that's the object lesson to be learned in this metafictional exercise in mayhem, which just happens to moonlight as a relationship advice manual of sorts: If you want to make love the Hollywood way, then perhaps you'd better be ready to take a beating.
I caught up with the opinionated and refreshingly honest Campbell by phone from his Oregon home, where he was setting off to visit some local swimming holes before leaving for a four-month promotional tour. It's strange, but besides being one of schlock cinema's enduring supernovas, Campbell is also an environmentalist of sorts; he's currently wrapping up a three-hour documentary called "A Community Speaks," a nonpartisan examination of the thorny issue of land stewardship, which he produced and directed with his wife, costume designer Ida Gearon. (This is especially weird if you remember that this is a guy who starred in a horror classic where an ingénue gets raped by a tree.) But Campbell's tongue is built for more than resting smarmily in his cheek. During our chat, h
I see a lot of "who the hell is Bruce Campbell?" posts and I'd like to make a few points -
Bruce Campbell is a guy who actively does Q&A with audience memebers. When's the last time you've heard of any multi-million dollar actor do that?
He seems like he's generally a decent guy - he understands his fans make him money, so he treats them with respect & admiration.
He's been in several cult horror films, some of which were actually really good but lacked any A-list actors to be taken seriously.
For those that can't picture who Bruce Campbell is - he was the door guy in Spiderman 2 that didn't let Peter in the theater because he was late.
Lately, he's been in Bubba Ho-Tep, which is another really good movie that didn't garner big box office dollars, but was still incredibly fun to watch. He plays Elvis in a retirement home which is invaded by a mummy, and his best friend (John F. Kennedy) who happens to be african american and has a bag of sand implanted in his head, helps him fend off the evil mummy.
You can't get any better than that.
Bruce was not pleased.
After all, I am strangely colored.
Scientology isn't killing WoW, it's the annoying characters and enormous plot holes that are killing it.
I read the internet for the articles.