So the day came… Mrs. O’Connor’s little boy, now all growed up, was going to get to talk to Bruce-fucking-Campbell. I was partially delirious as the interview was at some bastard early hour, but as soon as it began I launched into this little missive…

Anthony’s Little Missive

“I was 12-13. One of those awkward ages when you don’t really know who you are. I thought I could be a skater. I was wrong. After breaking my arm in an ill advised stunt attempt involving a skateboard, a DIY half pipe and an exaggerated sense of my own coordination – I was given a far-too-large shot of morphine by the local GP and sent shambling on my way. Milking the injury for all it was worth I badgered my parents let me rent a R-rated movie. They eventually relented.

“That movie was The Evil Dead.

“Tripping balls on a morphine high I played that movie on our BETA VCR. When it finished I was a changed man. I pressed stop, rewound the movie and watched it again. And again. And again. I don’t know how many times I watched that movie but when I came out of my room, I was… changed. I had become a gore hound – and Bruce Campbell was my big-chinned, chainsaw wielding deity.”

[long pause as Bruce Campbell tries to work out if the chap on the other end of the phone is a few films short of a trilogy]

“That’s quite an origin story!” Campbell says. “But thanks, I like stories where I’m a deity.”

“So tell us about They Call me Bruce…” I begin the question, Mr. Campbell clears his throat and politely says: “Uh, hate to stop you there, sparky, but it’s My Name is Bruce.”

Great. I talk to my idol and get the name of the melon-farming movie wrong!

Happily Bruce takes this gracefully. He’s a class act.

“Just don’t let it happen again.” He chuckles. I swoon.

My Name is Bruce is a horror/comedy directed by and starring Bruce Campbell as… well, Bruce Campbell! Except in this movie, Campbell is a sexist, drunken, sarcastic douche nozzle.

Is he such a person in real life?

“No! I’m a nice guy. Really!” Campbell said. “It was fun playing a bad version of me. Although I already did that in a far more literal sense in Army of Darkness. Anyway, in this movie a kid, a hardcore fan, abducts me from my trailer to help this small town fight off an ancient Chinese War deity, Guan Di.”

A couple of good ol’ boys sing a country and western song ditty about said deity, “Guan Di was his name… Guan you, Guan me, Guan Di!”

Bruce laughs: “Yeah, I liked that. Originally we were going to cut it but something about rednecks singing about ancient Chinese demons appealed to me.”

Something that a lot of fans have wondered, myself included, is why didn’t director Sam Raimi give Bruce a bigger role in the Spider-Man films? After all, the character, Ash, arguably raised The Evil Dead movies from horror to something new and awesome, nay, Clawsome. Eh. See what I did there?

“Sam gives me roles he thinks I’d be good in. He’s making big films and big films need big names. I was happy to have cameos in all three Spider-Man films!”

It’s funny, there’s not even a hint of bitterness about him. Seriously.

“I love to act and as long as they keep sending me the scripts I’ll keep doing them.”

I confess that as much as I loved The Evil Dead, I hated Evil Dead 2 the first time I saw it. It now rests in my top 10 films of all time, but as a youngster I didn’t understand why the flashback to the first movie was different and comedy? Why was there comedy?!

“Since we’re confessing stuff here, want to know something?” Bruce asks. “There was never supposed to be an Evil Dead 2! In the script for The Evil Dead Ash was dead.”

Whaaaaaa…?

“It’s true. The Evil Dead was a surprise hit, mainly due to Stephen King’s famous quote, “the most ferociously original horror film [of the year]” and we thought, well, that’s horror done. Now let’s get really famous with a movie called Crimewave.”

Indeed, that’s probably what should have happened. Crimewave was directed by Raimi and written by the Coen Brothers (!) and was a strange mix of slapstick and film noir. Perhaps a little before it’s time.

The move into the big time proved a nightmare, however. Coked up actors, studio interference, budget problems – it became a legendary clusterfuck.
“So we went back to Evil Dead. It was hard because in the last shot Ash was dead. The evil killed him.”

Ash dead?! What madness is this?

“Yeah,” Campbell laughs, “And we couldn’t get footage from the first film so we re-shot the ending to suit the new film.”

The same with Evil Dead 3 aka: Army of Darkness?

“Right! At the end of Evil Dead 2 the medieval crowd was chanting for me and the next movie begins with, “My name is Ash and I am a slave…” – I like that. I like that each film is so unique and kinda screws with you when you watch the next one and go, ‘hey… wait a second!’”

And My Name is Bruce?

“That’s one for the fans. This movie’s for you and your friends. It’s almost an Evil Dead movie and it’s the closest fans will get to a fourth entry.”

The Evil Dead trilogy should remain just that, yeah?

“Right. It’ll be another one of these sequels people wait a decade or two for and then see it and go, ‘yeah, it was okay.’”

Like Land/Diary of the Dead, the Star Wars prequels and Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears.

“I have something I do now at comic/movie conventions. Someone always asks about Evil Dead 4. I say, ‘Who wanted an Indiana Jones 4?’ everyone’s hand shoots up. Then I ask: ‘How many people were happy with what they got?’ and maybe one or two hands – out of hundreds – stay up. And I say, ‘exactly!’”

Bruce pauses here, then says: “You know – movies don’t NEED to have sequels. Sometimes they’re good but sometimes… a movie can just be.”

Two good examples of this are The Woods where Bruce plays it straight, even when he’s hacking up evil trees towards the end and Bubba Ho-Tep – a movie where the real Elvis (Campbell) and a dyed black JFK (Ossie Davis) fight an evil mummy in a old people’s home.

The source material is a brilliant little story by mad Texan scribe Joe R. Lansdale (read The Nightrunners or Cold in July – thank us later). Match that with Phantasm series director Don Coscarelli and you have a dream project.

“I think that was some of my best work,” Bruce muses. “It was such an interesting, original story and it wasn’t a sequel!”

Indeed Bubba Ho-Tep manages to be poignant, original, funny and even a little creepy.

Interestingly, and frankly kinda depressingly, a Bubba Ho-Tep sequel, called Bubba Nosferatu is in the works. Bruce lets out a weary sigh when asked about that.

“I don’t want to get into a whole thing about this, but I’m not going to be involved. For a start anyone who has seen Bubba Ho-Tep knows it’s about people at the end of their lives. So it would have to be a prequel and that would mean Elvis knew about vampires before he saw the mummy… plus, and this is the main reason, Joe’s not going to be involved. I think he could make the story work – but he doesn’t want to so that’s that. Again, a movie doesn’t always need a sequel!”

Asking Bruce if he ever gets the shits with directors for not giving him bigger roles in A-list films was a nerve wracking moment. Thankfully Bruce reacted with typical good spirits.

“Well, Sam f’rinstance puts me in roles he knows suit me. And cause me pain. I’m not sure what that says about me but no, I don’t have ‘the shits’. Not with him nor any other director. I’m just happy to get regular work!”

My Name is Bruce is almost a love letter to Campbell fans. It’s a good movie on its on merits but…

“Yeah, we throw the fans a lot of bones in this one. It was kind of funny because normally I try to not put any ‘Ash’ in my performance so just letting go was very enjoyable. Although I directed this one too so… it was about finding the balance.”

What’s next, then, for our Bruce?

“I’ve got some voice work coming up and I’m now a part of the TV show Burn Notice – which is just great. I play Sam Axe – a tough, boozing womaniser. I‘m the guy who knows a guy. It‘s a fantastic role for me and I‘m damn happy to have it.”

Prior to this interview I’d been warned that Bruce could be sarcastic and cruel to journalists. As he’d been nothing but a gent, I had to know what the story was with that.

“Look, if you were some know-nothing jackass who didn’t know me from Adam and got the job of interviewing me, I can get pissed off. I mean, and I’m not trying to big note myself, but I do have fans. Some of whom would cut off a finger to get the interview. I don’t like the way B-films are treated. But I’ve always got time for my fans. Even the scary ones.”

Bruce Campbell: Actor, director, writer and demon hunter, Clawsome salutes you.

Update: Campbell chews the scenery with great relish in the kinda goofy-but-fun Burn Notice. Also the possibility of an Evil Dead 4 has risen again. Campbell has told people it might happen, but not until, “Sam’s finished Spider-Man 4.”

Being that Spider-Man 4 is no longer a Raimi project speculation has been running wild on whether we’ll see an Evil Dead 4. The script is being worked on by Sam and Ivan Raimi but writing a script and making a movie are two very different beasties. Also, with Raimi making the Warcraft movie it’s likely to be a long wait.

What do you guys think? Evil Dead 4 – yay or nay?