B-movie icon Bruce Campbell knows the madness associated with his name. In My Name is Bruce, the actor (who also directs) plays a cruel version of himself elected to save a small community from the murderous wrath of a poorly rendered Chinese demon. The movie, which recently hit DVD, only reveals one aspect of Campbell's multifaceted career: He also appears on the popular television show Burn Notice and has a slew of other projects in flux. For the following interview, Campbell reflected on his various performances and elaborated on his outlook.
Do you see yourself in the way your character is portrayed in the movie?
If it's the way I see my career, then I should retire. It's my worst nightmare come true. If this is real in any way, I should just quit right now.
When did you start to recognize the type of performance people expect from you?
I don't say to myself that I have to do a certain type of performance. I'm attracted to a certain type of material. I'm the same guy who's performing various different roles. What you're asking about is more the way people perceive me on the outside than the way I see myself.
But you're obviously aware of the way people perceive you.
To some degree, everyone has a warped idea of what actors are like in real life. There's a way to take to the extreme. You can let somebody know how different an actor can be from what their expectations are. That's the movie's premise. It works on some subliminal, psychological level, but the main goal is to entertain the masses.
Have you ever been offered a role that suggested someone completely misinterpreted what they considered to be your range?
Burn Notice came to me out of nowhere. I thought it was a good approach: Not a lawyer show, not a comedy show. I'm all over a weird show like Burn Notice. I tend to look for alternative stuff. I don't really care for mainstream material. It tends to pander to a certain audience, like seventeen year olds. When they try to make a PG movie that will please everyone, it takes the edge off everything. If you have an R rated movie, at least it knows what it is.
Like the Evil Dead movies.
Oh yeah. The first one was unrated. The MPAA hated us. We didn't go through them for the first two. Then, Army of Darkness was dancing skeletons. They gave us an NC-17 the first time we submitted. That's the ratings board. They're a bunch of people on the PTA who don't know shit from shinola. We made some changes, but when we asked them what we had to cut out, they said, "You can't cut anything out. It's the cumulative effect." What does that mean?
One thing your fans do care about is Bubba Ho-tep. What happened to the sequel plans?
They're claiming they're making one, but I'm not going to be in it, because I couldn't agree on a script with [director] Don Coscarelli. He's going to potentially make it with Ron Perlman as Elvis and Paul Giamatti as Colonel Tom.
Sounds creepy.
It is a little creepy, but Don's a big boy and he gets to make the movie. This particular gig wasn't for me.
You've recently completed two voice acting gigs.
I did White on Rice and a 3-D Sony movie called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Are you planning on directing anything else?
Not according to The New York Times. I'm just going to see what happens. I'm writing a book called Vagabond: The Gypsy Life of an Actor. It's all my off-screen adventures, like living in Bulgaria for two months and getting chased by wild packs of dogs.
You've also made an environmental documentary about land management, A Community Speaks. How do you walk between those two worlds? I imagine your fans wouldn't necessarily have any interest in that.
It's not for them, anyway, so it doesn't matter. There's a whole different world out there that's never seen a horror movie before. I don't care who watches them, but somebody needs to. It's a very personal statement, where I don't care if the main crowd watches it. It's a personal crusade.
Have you ever thought about importing the personal crusade into your other work?
No, because there's still a very strong separation of church and state. If an actor wants to go be an activist, he should go do it. I don't really tell anybody what I'm doing. I just do it, but I don't think people care.
Do you see yourself in the way your character is portrayed in the movie?
If it's the way I see my career, then I should retire. It's my worst nightmare come true. If this is real in any way, I should just quit right now.
When did you start to recognize the type of performance people expect from you?
I don't say to myself that I have to do a certain type of performance. I'm attracted to a certain type of material. I'm the same guy who's performing various different roles. What you're asking about is more the way people perceive me on the outside than the way I see myself.
But you're obviously aware of the way people perceive you.
To some degree, everyone has a warped idea of what actors are like in real life. There's a way to take to the extreme. You can let somebody know how different an actor can be from what their expectations are. That's the movie's premise. It works on some subliminal, psychological level, but the main goal is to entertain the masses.
Have you ever been offered a role that suggested someone completely misinterpreted what they considered to be your range?
Burn Notice came to me out of nowhere. I thought it was a good approach: Not a lawyer show, not a comedy show. I'm all over a weird show like Burn Notice. I tend to look for alternative stuff. I don't really care for mainstream material. It tends to pander to a certain audience, like seventeen year olds. When they try to make a PG movie that will please everyone, it takes the edge off everything. If you have an R rated movie, at least it knows what it is.
Like the Evil Dead movies.
Oh yeah. The first one was unrated. The MPAA hated us. We didn't go through them for the first two. Then, Army of Darkness was dancing skeletons. They gave us an NC-17 the first time we submitted. That's the ratings board. They're a bunch of people on the PTA who don't know shit from shinola. We made some changes, but when we asked them what we had to cut out, they said, "You can't cut anything out. It's the cumulative effect." What does that mean?
One thing your fans do care about is Bubba Ho-tep. What happened to the sequel plans?
They're claiming they're making one, but I'm not going to be in it, because I couldn't agree on a script with [director] Don Coscarelli. He's going to potentially make it with Ron Perlman as Elvis and Paul Giamatti as Colonel Tom.
Sounds creepy.
It is a little creepy, but Don's a big boy and he gets to make the movie. This particular gig wasn't for me.
You've recently completed two voice acting gigs.
I did White on Rice and a 3-D Sony movie called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Are you planning on directing anything else?
Not according to The New York Times. I'm just going to see what happens. I'm writing a book called Vagabond: The Gypsy Life of an Actor. It's all my off-screen adventures, like living in Bulgaria for two months and getting chased by wild packs of dogs.
You've also made an environmental documentary about land management, A Community Speaks. How do you walk between those two worlds? I imagine your fans wouldn't necessarily have any interest in that.
It's not for them, anyway, so it doesn't matter. There's a whole different world out there that's never seen a horror movie before. I don't care who watches them, but somebody needs to. It's a very personal statement, where I don't care if the main crowd watches it. It's a personal crusade.
Have you ever thought about importing the personal crusade into your other work?
No, because there's still a very strong separation of church and state. If an actor wants to go be an activist, he should go do it. I don't really tell anybody what I'm doing. I just do it, but I don't think people care.
