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Salon Interviews Bruce Campbell 192

Posted by Zonk from the jagged-jawed-man-of-industry dept.
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.'"
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Salon Interviews Bruce Campbell More

Salon Interviews Bruce Campbell

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  • My feeling... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16, 2005 @07:33AM (#13080540)
    "Shut up and learn to act" might be better advice.
    • Alright you primitive screwheads listen up. This is my BOOMSTICK! Its a twelve gauge double barrel remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You'll find this in the sporting goods department. Thats right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids Michigan. It retails for about 109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. Thats right, shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that!?

  • Sour Grapes? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dante Shamest ( 813622 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @07:37AM (#13080548)
    But my feeling is, 'Shut up and act.'

    And my feeling is that Bruce Campbell's a closet Katie Holmes fan.

  • Article text (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 16, 2005 @07:37AM (#13080549)
    "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.

    - - - - - - - - - - - -
    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

    • Re:Article text (Score:2, Informative)

      by rodac ( 580415 )
      Salon got it wrong.

      Peter Jacksons first movie was BadTaste. DeadAlive, as it was called in the US, or Braindead as the rest of us know it was his second movie.

      BadTaste was much better than DeadAlive and is a tragedy for PeterJackson.
      When the first movie you ever made was an 11, whewre can you go from there? You cant go for one splattier, 11 is the max.

      Evil Dead might be a classic but BadTaste is the splattermovie to end all splattermovies.
      • "You see, most blokes will be directing at 11. You're on 11, all the way up, all the way up...Where can you go from there? Nowhere. What we do, is if we need that extra push over the cliff...Twelve. One louder."
      • Braindead was Jackson's _third_ movie.

        Between Bad Taste and Braindead, there was the hilarious little muppets-for-adults movie "Meet the Feebles".

        And personally, as fun as Bad Taste is, I don't think it was better than Braindead.

  • Why is it.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dieScheisse ( 554308 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @07:43AM (#13080558)
    that trying to read a Salon article is like going to look at timeshares just to get the free trip?

  • This is on Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @08:01AM (#13080593)
    the only explanation I have is that making love the bruce campbell way somehow involves the left hand...
  • 1- Site for nerds like me 2- Army of Darkness star 3- Mix for 10 minutes and serve

  • Cult film actor (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FoXDie ( 853291 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @08:20AM (#13080632) Homepage
    Bruce Campbell [imdb.com] is a cult film [imdb.com] actor. Cult films [imdb.com] are generally appreciated by Nerds. This is so because of the often campy, but entertaining, material of the cult films. [imdb.com]

    In a related subject, Nerds are known to "Geek out" when they see a cult film [imdb.com] actor, such as Bruce Campbell, in major films. [imdb.com]

  • Brisco County Jr (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm not a horror film fan, but I very much enjoyed Campbells Brisco County Jr. He reminded me of Clint Walker but not quite taking anything seriously. It was a great series.
  • I mean really, Salon isn't that good of a news magazine. They require payment for mediocre articles, you can't even read [symantec.com] the article if you have Norton Ad-Blocker active, their political commentary is out-of-kilter with most of the libertarian Slashdot audience... Why exactly should we care that Salon has a celebrity interview article?
  • "Dude, you're blacker than Al Jolson!"

    Tom Cruise is a bit of a nutbar - no doubt about it - but he is a fascinating, headstrong A-list actor who stirs up controversy and sells copy. His fanatical devotion to Scientology seems to have hurt "War of the Worlds" at the box office (and threatens to cripple his own career) and yet he doesn't even flinch.

    Bruce, on the other hand, hasn't really turned the world on it's ear since Army of Darkness. It was that single brilliant movie filmed 20 years ago (give or take - too lazy to find out exactly when) that strangely continues to buoy him to B-list celebrity status.

    Good or bad, Tom Cruise pumps out the big Hollywood blockbusters like a tennis ball machine gone evil. He has as much a right to speak about whatever he believes as much as anybody. Bruce should maybe take his own advice and "shut-up and act", or at least stop being such a bloody hypocrite.

    • Re:"Hello Kettle? Yeah, it's Pot calling..." (Score:5, Informative)

      by jandrese ( 485 ) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Saturday July 16, 2005 @10:34AM (#13081055) Homepage Journal
      Scientology isn't killing WoW, it's the annoying characters and enormous plot holes that are killing it.
    • Tom Cruise is a bit of a nutbar - no doubt about it - but he is a fascinating

      Perhaps you to. To me, he's an annoying Scientology douchebag.

      Bruce, on the other hand, hasn't really turned the world on it's ear since Army of Darkness.

      On the other hand, Bruce ISN'T an annoying Scientology douchebag.

      Good or bad, Tom Cruise pumps out the big Hollywood blockbusters like a tennis ball machine gone evil.

      I don't think "blockbuster" is the term I'd use for a good chunk of the movies he's been involved in in

      • And I'm willing to bet the reason War of the Worlds isn't doing worse than it is is because Dakota Fanning is more of an actress at 10 years old than ol' Tom will ever be.

        Er, yes. Probably quite true.

        But I agree with what you meant as well. ;-)

        I was watching part of an interview with Travolta a night or two ago, and was just thinking... damn it'd be nice if the media would occasionally grow some fucking balls when interviewing these Scientologist drones. "So John... you seriously believe that an

        • Er, yes. Probably quite true.

          Um, yeah. Definitely a good argument for hitting the 'preview' button before posting.

          Seriously though, my wife and I saw the movie because we were impressed by Dakota's acting in other movies she's been in. If it'd been some other little girl we'd never heard of we'd never have bothered seeing the movie - even via BitTorrent. For the same reason we don't see Travolta movies anymore, even though I thought Travolta was a decent actor right up to "Broken Arrow". Because neit
        • "'So John... you seriously believe that an evil alien warlord called Xenu dropped hydrogen bombs in volcanos 75 million years ago [...]'"

          They don't ask because they don't want to get sued for copyright infringement.

          • They don't ask because they don't want to get sued for copyright infringement.

            Hence the bit about growing some fucking balls. :-)

            Anyway, the Scientologists are bullies and much prefer picking on the weak. I very very much doubt they'd try using their lawyentologists on a person or media organisation who can actually afford to defend themselves. And their celeb-drones like Cruise/Travolta usually have their own PR teams who use a combination of threats and incentives to keep the media lapdogs on a t

    • Re:"Hello Kettle? Yeah, it's Pot calling..." (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @02:48PM (#13082442)
      Bruce, on the other hand, hasn't really turned the world on it's ear since Army of Darkness. It was that single brilliant movie filmed 20 years ago (give or take - too lazy to find out exactly when) that strangely continues to buoy him to B-list celebrity status.

      Go watch Bubba Ho-Tep and try telling me that again.

  • Why Bruce is popular.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by sinner0423 ( 687266 ) <sinner0423@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Saturday July 16, 2005 @08:50AM (#13080712)
    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.
    • He was also the ring announcer at the wrestling match in the first Spiderman. Raimi takes care of his pals. :)
    • He was also the announcer for the match fights in Spider-Man 1. He gave Spider-Man his name and catch phrase iirc.
    • I see a lot of "who the hell is Bruce Campbell?" posts and I'd like to make a few points -

      Really? Where? Look through this article, and you'll see just about every post extolling his movies. I understand you wanted to write a post about Campbell, but don't pretend he's unknown around these parts!

      For the record, a friend of mine went to high school with Raimi and Campbell, and still has a copy of a movie they made back then - using his mother's car and running around the campus at Cranbrook (a privat
      • Ok admittedly I don't get out much and don't have much idea what goes on in that place they call "real life" but I, at least, did not know who Bruce Campbell was and appreciated the clarification.
        • That's completely understandable - what I was picking on in the parent post was the mention of a bunch of "who is this guy" posts. There simply aren't any...
    • Ooookay...

      That still doesn't explain to me why the hell this is posted on /.

      Seems to me that if I were interested in these type of things I would be reading, like, Salon, or something?
      • "Seems to me that if I were interested in these type of things I would be reading, like, Salon, or something?"

        I really hated it when the Slashdot Mafia broke into my house, put one of those Clockwork Orange eye-opener doodads on my head, and forced me to read the article. The worst part was when they raped me with hot grits, though.
      • Because stars of cult films are as much of a piece of nerd news as a story about the latest dual core processors are.

  • Salon: So, how good would you say you are? (Score:4, Funny)

    by MindNumbingOblivion ( 668443 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @08:53AM (#13080720)
    BC: Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
  • Just a small aside from whether campbell crunches kernal code, if you have the chance you should watch the 2002 film Bubba Ho-Tep, with Bruce Campbell playing a retired Elvis in a Nursing home. In the film he and a very old JFK have to battle an egyptian mummy, as the tagline says "The King of Rock vs. The King of the Dead". I realise it's an relatively old film to be pimping but it well worth watching whether or not you are a Campbell fan or not as it's incredibly funny, with an extremely poignant ending.
    • Oh god, the ending was the worst part. I'm not going to spoil it for people out there, because it's still worth watching, but the mummy has nothing to do with why this movie is good.

  • It is sad... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by evenprime ( 324363 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @08:56AM (#13080732) Homepage Journal
    It is sad that slashdot focuses on the tabloid side of the interview instead of the surprising stuff: the king of B-grade horror movies has turned out what is supposed to be a really good educational documentary about land management.

  • translation: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SA Stevens ( 862201 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @09:23AM (#13080820)
    "because in between shots Tom wanted to help people kick drugs and alcohol. "

    translates:

    "because in between shots Tom wanted to help people convert over from drugs and alcohol to scientology."
    • Thanks for making that clear for the few who may not be familiar with scientologists.

      Why waste your money on drugs when you can give it all to Scientology after all ?

  • Whither the renaissance geek? (OT) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stu Charlton ( 1311 ) on Saturday July 16, 2005 @10:16AM (#13081000) Homepage
    I'm noticing a disturbing trend here.

    One of the reasons I joined Slashdot in the first place (in late 1997) was the wide variety of geek-like interests that CmdrTaco and Hemos held -- from Linux / BSD / UNIX, to Perl, free sw / open source, Python, C, or Java programming, to gaming, to crackers/pirates, to Jon Katz's sometimes-interesting rants on culture, to cult movies, to casemods, to online rights, and a curious & growing interest in Apple (Jobs had just rejoined), etc.

    But now there seems to be a lot of geeks that have a real track mind. They don't know classic cult TV or movie heros. They bitch about music / musicians because they're not a kernel mod. They hate TV or movie news (Battlestar sucks, Firefly sucks, Buffy/Angel sucked, Babylon 5 sucked, etc. --- What do you watch, The Weather Channel?).

    Basically, all they want to talk shop! It's all about is Linux, or FOSS license pro/cons, or how Apache, MySQL, perl, etc. will somehow create a New Geek World Order.

    What happened to the renaissance geek? Where's the passion for the obscure and beautiful, no matter the subject area?
    • They're all hanging at the ren faire with the rest of the SCA contingent.
    • The Slashdot community is not an amporphous mass with perfectly identical interests - outside of course the mutual interest in computers.

      Just because a few people don't like Firefly, Babylon 5 or other shows does not mean the majorty of the community does not. The same person posting those "Babylon 5 Sucks!" comments might very well be the loudest champion of Firefly.

      It might seem Slashdotters want only to talk shop because that is the one thing they do all agree on. They all have different interests of c
      • I mean, even in the "good 'ol days" the KDE vs. Gnome wars were incessant.

        Saying "XYZ sucks!" I guess is a bad example. What I really am complaining about are the "What is XYZ? How is this related to Linux? How is this news for nerds?" posts.
    • we're all in the /. timeout because the new mods don't understand our humor, and keep modding us "troll".

      either that, or scientologists are after me.

    • Just wanted to say that your post should be /.'s first +6 Insightful.

      You're *exactly* right.

    • This is a trend that happens in any community. It continues to grow while the people that made the community in the first place grow older, expand their range of interests, and become more passive or leave altogether.

      Couple this with the fact that in most online communities you have an extremely opinionated/vocal minority and before you know it, it's not the community you joined.

      But usually someone from the original community has a moment of nostalgia and starts a new hive, and people slowly gravitate to
    • Howdy, Stu; nice low UID. As you can probably figure out, I've been here for a good while, too--not as long as you, but a good while.

      I think what happened to Slashdot is it got popular, and nobody--least of all Taco--knows how to deal with popularity. When Slashdot was the land of five-digit UIDs, as it was when I came, there was no karma system, there was no friend or foe system. It wasn't needed; the place was small enough that people knew other people. You'd have a long and fruitful argument with so
      • Thank you. If I had the mod points, I'd credit
        that post as a fine example of what Insightful
        was meant to be at slashdot.

        As to why you are still here... perhaps because
        you still seek the same community that you started with, and have not found an alternative
        forum that both offers what you fell slashdot
        used to provide, and one that does not have
        former /. members promoting it as the anti-slashdot.

        I wish you luck in finding it, or in waiting out
        the cycle wherein some other site becomes the next big forum, an
      • Well, I find some of the poster personalities fascinating and entertaining. And I find the quirkiness of the editors (Taco in particular) amusing.

        But mostly I'm still here because I see the odd Insightful post that turns me onto something new - an idea, a project, etc. Or I get into a good debate about some kind of subject.

        For example, I've known about ML, Caml, OCaml, etc., but I've frankly never heard of SML/NJ. So I'm checking it out. I deal mostly with mainstream stuff (working for BEA Systems),
    • What happened to the renaissance geek? Where's the passion for the obscure and beautiful, no matter the subject area?

      They're all to busy R'ing TFA to post responses.
  • It took me a short while to think of it, but I think the alternate title to WotW was Xenu's Revenge, or something like that.

    I haven't seen the movie but from what I've heard, Cruise spends most of it running from danger. That's not the Bruce Campbell way. From the Campbell movies I've seen, he takes the approach of the comman man when presented with something scarry. He grabs a gun and blasts a hole in something, preferably an alien.
  • I recently got to see Bruce touring [bruce-campbell.com] with Man with the Screaming Brain and his new book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. Not only did I get my book signed but also a great half-hour Q&A session with the audience before the film. It was worth it and I recomend any Bruce Campbell fan check it out.

    And the book is a great read for those of you into the Mike Nelson style of writing.

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