HAIL TO THE KING, BABY: Scott Tipton talks with the Man himself, Bruce Campbell, about directing ex-Communists, giving Ted Raimi a swift kick, and surviving Comic-Con. Groovy.
by Scott Tipton
October 3, 2005
It’s Bruce Campbell’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
At least, that’s how it might seem, considering the number of projects Campbell has been involved in over the last few months. This summer saw the release of his first novel, MAKE LOVE! THE BRUCE CAMPBELL WAY, and a meaty supporting role as Coach Boomer in one of the summer’s more underrated gems, Disney’s superhero comedy SKY HIGH.
Last month gamers were treated to probably the best videogame translation of the classic Sam Raimi trilogy of films with EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION, which features Campbell reprising his role as the chainsaw-wielding Ash, and introduces Campbell’s frequent co-star Ted Raimi (probably best known as Joxer the Mighty on XENA) as Ash’s often abused undead dwarf sidekick.
The last few weeks have seen another onslaught of Bruce material hit the stores, including a special-edition DVD reissue of EVIL DEAD 2, featuring an all-new High-Definition transfer of the film, packaged in a consumer-friendly replica of the Necronomicon, all set to swallow your soul.
Even more exciting is the audiobook version of MAKE LOVE! THE BRUCE CAMPBELL WAY from Rykodisc, a fully performed 6-CD extravaganza that’s much more like a radio play than a mere reading. It’s hilarious.
Had enough yet? Didn’t think so. Then make sure to look for Bruce’s two new DVD releases hitting stores this week from Anchor Bay Entertainment: ALIEN APOCALYPSE (the highest-rated Sci-Fi Channel original movie to air in the network’s 12-year history) and MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN, a darkly humorous horror romp that just happens to be Bruce Campbell’s feature directorial debut.
Bruce was kind enough to give us a few minutes to talk about, well, all this stuff, so let us commence:
Scott Tipton: Before we start, I just wanted to mention that my father is a huge fan of THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR.
Bruce Campbell: Ah, he’s the one.
ST: I watched THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN recently, and I really got a kick out of it. But you know what really got me jumping off my couch? When your character’s wife gets thrown down the stairs. I was like, “Whoa!” It looks and sounds brutal.
BC: (Laughs.) Yeah, that’s a great B-movie fall. It was done with a combination of a stuntwoman and just throwing a dummy down the stairs. It looks just nasty.
ST: I hadn’t realized until recently just how many episodes of HERCULES and XENA you’d directed. How did that work prepare you for directing your first feature?
BC: It was pretty much what I expected. I know the pace, from the television work. The key to directing is being a good time manager. These are shot in 20 days, so you’ve got to have a plan. You’ve gotta know way in advance what you’re doing. The thing about directing for television is it’s all about being a salesman. You’ve gotta come in prepared. I would pitch the actors on what I wanted to do with the episode, or the scene. Then it’s pitching your concept to the cameramen and the crew.
ST: Did you have an advantage with that on HERCULES and XENA, since you were appearing on the series as an actor?
BC: Actually, no, since I directed my first HERCULES in 1994, but didn’t appear as Autolycus until 1995.
ST: So did you find the workload to be more strenuous doing the feature? Was there an adjustment?
BC: Nope, no different. It was just like shooting two XENAs back to back.
ST: How was the experience of shooting SCREAMING BRAIN in Bulgaria? Overall, a positive or a negative? Would you go back?
BC: God, no. Never. There are packs of wild dogs roaming the streets.
We were forced to shoot the thing in Bulgaria, for budget reasons. The thing about Bulgaria is that the average worker makes $110 a month. I rewrote the script to take advantage of it, since the original story was set in East L.A., which wouldn’t have made any sense. It’s a fish out of water story, and for my character, who was sort of the ultimate capitalist, to be surrounded by all of this Communist architecture and statues, it seemed to work out well.
ST: So you were able to take advantage of your surroundings?
BC: Oh, definitely. There was this huge length of abandoned subway tunnel we were able to use, since ever since Communism fell, nobody knows who owns anything. You’d see a thousand unfinished buildings in Bulgaria, with rebar sticking out and everything, right next to brand-new completed buildings built after capitalism came in. They’re just now introducing cable television to Bulgaria, and they’re just stapling the cable to the sides of buildings. You can tell how many people in a given building have cable now by just counting the staples.
ST: How was the crew to work with?
BC: They were good, hard-working Bulgarians. They were good workers when they were told to work. They’re not lazy. The only problem was, they’re so used to Communism, if they’re not told what to do, they won’t do it. If it’s clear that a scaffold needs to be built, they won’t jump on it early. But if you say, “Hey, go build that scaffold,” they’re all over it. I had to get used to what we called “the Bulgarian surprise.” All the prop requests were handled through a translator, so I would ask for something, say, a pipe with a knuckle at the end, and would get back something entirely different. Eventually, I just put a dry-erase board in the office and would actually draw out a sketch of what I wanted.
ST: Switching gears to your new audio book of MAKE LOVE! THE BRUCE CAMPBELL WAY, it’s very lavishly produced, much more like a radio play than just a book on tape. It’s a lot of fun.
BC: Yeah, we tried to make it like a movie without the picture.
ST: Did I hear Ted Raimi on there?
BC: Oh, of course. Ted’s all over that thing.
ST: How big a cast did you use?
BC: There’s a cast of eight, four Shakespearean actors and four actors I flew up from L.A. Where I live in Oregon is very big with the Shakespeare festivals, so we get these great Shakespearean actors coming through the area. The only problem was getting them all back to finish the thing, since they were all always busy working on shows.
ST: It’s fun to also hear Ted Raimi as the dwarf sidekick in the new video game: EVIL DEAD: REGENERATION, although it’s a little weird that the Ash character in the game is always kicking him around.
BC: Yeah, it’s great. You can boot Ted all over the place.
ST: What’s the recording process like on the videogames from your side?
BC: Well, you’re in a nice, comfortable studio, so it’s good. The only problem is there’s so much material to record. You’ve got to account for not only everything the gamer is supposed to do, but everything he might do as well. “Hey, there’s nothing there,” and like that. So I recommend you go through it once and try to win, then go back and do dumb stuff everywhere to hear all the quips.
ST: I saw that you were at the Comic-Con in San Diego a couple months back, which this year was bigger than ever. What was your reaction to the show?
BC: My reaction was one of bemusement. I go this year and I see Charlize Theron is there. Adrian Brody is there. Jamie Foxx is there. Five years ago, if you’d gone to their agents and tried to get them to come to a comic convention, the agents would have said “Kiss my ass.” Now that it’s this big deal, here they are, and my response is “you’re not welcome.”
The show is a little unmanageable now, just the size of it. I saw so many comatose people walking around this year – they’d come by my table for the signing, and they’d be so overwhelmed from the walking and the crowds, they couldn’t talk. You can’t park anywhere, you’re constantly shoulder to shoulder with everyone. Putting on that show is like a military operation now. Sometimes things grow beyond their usefulness, and become harder to manage. Still, I like the people running it and I liked the people they had this year.
ST: And it is good for getting some of the smaller projects in front of the people most likely to enjoy it. For example, I don’t know if I would have gone to see SKY HIGH if I hadn’t seen the panel at Comic-Con. I just wish the movie would’ve done a little better at the box office – I really enjoyed it.
BC: Hey, it did a lot better than they expected! Disney was counting on HERBIE to be their big summer hit, and well…
SKY HIGH will be huge on DVD. I’m telling you, the day is coming when the studios just say “the hell with it” and start releasing movies to DVD at the same time they’re in the theatres. That way, the consumer wins. More and more, you’re seeing people asking, “Do I want to pack up the kids and spend all that money at the movie theatre, or spend 5 bucks on a rental and watch it on my entertainment system at home, which is as good as the system in my local multiplex?” It’s just about reached critical mass. Disney doesn’t care; they still get your money. The theatres are quaking in their boots at this notion, but they’ll do all right.
I mean, the hotel room I’m in right now has a giant flat-screen TV in it (and it’s not even that nice a hotel) , and even shitty car commercials look amazing on this thing. It’s like buying a car with a navigation system is now, where it’s just a given. As people build their houses, they’ll have a home entertainment theatre room built-in. It’s a digital world now. A guy I know downloaded my book onto his iPod, and he’s just walking around listening to it. That means no more book tours for me. It’s all part of my master plan to never have to tour again.
ST: Any new projects coming up you want to mention?
BC: I’ve got two or three films coming up, but the best way for people to keep track of what I’m doing is to go to www.bruce-campbell.com. I always tell people when they ask about rumors of new projects, “If it ain’t on the site, it ain’t.”
Bruce Campbell’s book, audiobook, videogame and DVDs are in stores. Surely there’s something in there you want. So go buy it already.
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
