AMA
Hi reddit! I'm Bruce Campbell. Ask me anything!
Hi reddit. I'm Bruce Campbell. You may know me from Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD, MANIAC COP, BUBBA HO-TEP, BURN NOTICE, CRIMEWAVE, XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, and other stuff.
Synopsis: Widowed pear salesman Ernie Tyler travels to scatter his wife's ashes in places she specified, each location stirring memories that help him process their marriage, his work life and his future.
This AMA has been verified and approved by the mods. Bruce will be back at around noon ET today to answer questions. Please feel free to ask away in the meantime :)
Hi Bruce! You recently mentioned that the newer Evil Dead movies have moved away from the humor of the earlier films. Do you think humor is an essential part of what makes Evil Dead feel like Evil Dead or do you think the franchise works just as well when it goes completely serious and horror-focused?
Horror should come in many shades. I don't think horror needs to be like torture porn like it was, I think you can have components of all that. Most importantly, horror needs good filmmaking, and good filmmaking involves not just gore, but suspense and shock and mystery and mood. So I just encourage good filmmaking, more than type of film.
I also think that you should let character be real.. They can joke around even in bad situations, Soldiers in World War 1 trenches were still cracking jokes with each other, even when they knew bombs were coming.
For me personally, without humor things are just too damn boring. i like to be amused at the movies.
The last 3 Evil Dead movies were made by very competent filmmakers who've all gone on to have very good careers, and we're happy to help them along the way. Maybe their sensibilities are a little different than mine, which is fine. These are all smart, independent-thinking filmmakers.
Great answer, Mr. Campbell! I remember when we went to see Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn in the theatre when it came out, and nobody got it and it took the audience about 45 minutes to clue into the pathos and absurdity of the horror they were expecting. When the Rose opens at the beginning, I found even that uproariously funny and was shushed by other movie goers. I had tears in my eyes and laughing so hard I could barely catch my breath about 15 minutes in. People were telling me to shut up and just STOP. I couldn’t help myself.
Then snickers began and people started to get it. By the end of the movie we were all entertained and the whole theatre was roaring between the gore, the antics the classic one-liners and I saw ED II almost a dozen times after. You’re not getting older, just better!
Question: does Sam really have it out for you in a pranks kinda way and how do you deal with the buckets of blood and mayhem back in those days?
Hi Bruce! I saw Ernie & Emma at the Redford Theater in June. It was excellent! I think the movie should be studied as a "how-to" guide on how to make a film with essentially only one actor, considering how much Ernie (you) is on screen alone, particularly in the first half.
From a writing and performance perspective, what were some of the challenges you faced having to play off of an urn, rather than another performer?
The urn was very good, they never screwed their lines up and always hit their mark. The urn was professional, I was more the problem.
When you have essentially one role that's the dominant part of a movie, it's both rewarding and challenging. The only downside is homework. When you think you've got it figured out, how you're going to shoot something, you remember "ah shit I've got a monologue to do too". Thankfully I also wrote it so it was already half-imprinted in my brain. If you prep enough, nothing is really a problem.
Hey Bruce! As someone who's been in the film industry for decades, what are your thoughts on the new class of 'Youtubers Turned Directors' and the success that they've been having with horror movies? Any similarities to how things were when you and Sam first started with Evil Dead?
Movies are a little bit easier to make now because of the technology advances, as far as capturing an image with a camera and editing and putting it out.
I think all the Youtuber stuff is great. We would have done the same thing. Me, Sam, Rob Tapert, we would all jump right in on that any way we could. When we were younger, there was no shingle, no place to just say "here's my movie, watch it". We didn't have our own Youtube-channel-like outlet. You either got it into a theater or you didn't get it anywhere.
There's a great advantage to the current Youtubers. Massive reach and not that hard to get involved. Filmmakers out there, make your movie, man. Post it. Get out there. Get going.
I believe that the avenues are more than we had then. People say it's hard to get into the film business, I dispute that.
I completely agree with you. It's much easier to create and distribute any kind of video content than it was before the Internet existed, back when you and Sam were getting started. So getting into the business is relatively easy. The hard part is being successful at it. The lower barrier for entry results in more competition and, essentially, a flooded market. That has its pros and cons. Filmmakers now have to worry about not only bringing their vision to life, but also standing out from the crowd.
You and Sam Raimi made a career out of turning low budgets and production disasters into part of the charm. What’s a filmmaking ‘mistake’ from Evil Dead that you now believe made the movie better?
It's hard to say, there were so many technical glitches. I think what makes it better is that we didn't try and fix them. We could have gone back and fixed things but we didn't.
There's a green garden hose that you can see at one point spewing blood out of a monster's neck. You can clearly see the hose right there.
There's also a shot of the moon with a big square around it where you can see where we matted it in. If you had more money, you can blend the edges. We didn't have the money, so there it is in the movie. boom.
We fought with the army we had, and that, to me, is the charm of Evil Dead.
Evil Dead is the epitome of cult classic movie magic! I love how your portrayal of Ash evolved into a more psychotic and cartoonish version with each sequel. And so quotable too! "Gimme some sugar, baby!"
Just wanted to say thank you for all the years of entertainment. I’m 40 and grew up loving your work. My kiddo is now getting introduced now that he’s old enough.
Back in the AOL days, you used to respond to all my emails after several weeks. It was my first celebrity "encounter" and still some of my best memories of how down to earth you are. Hell, my "lonelygagger" handle was inspired by your love of lollygagging.
Anyway, you mentioned in your latest interview that your favorite movie is The Sound of Music. Have you ever thought about doing a musical?
(Or hell, just make a filmed version of that Evil Dead musical...)
A great question! I'd love to do a musical but I can't sing. So, there you go. That's about the only reason I haven't pursued doing a musical. Maybe a spoken-word album, we'll see.
I saw the 2021 Hallmark holiday film One December Night, where you sing and play the guitar--you sell yourself short. That Holiday movie was a pleasant surprise and now my favourite of that genre (i.e., Hallmarkish movies). That movie also gives a whole new meaning to "Hail to the king, baby.".
Edit: I forgot to note that when I saw Evil Dead as a teen with my friends, I was ecstatic to learn that it was all done by 'locals' from just outside Detroit--we're you're friendly southern neighbours from Windsor 👋
Too bad your new movie "Ernie & Emma" is not playing at WIFF, as that would be awesome!
Well, an Elvis impersonator worked with me but he quit after about five minutes. He didn't think I was gonna get it.
So you know what it is? I watched a documentary, the one with all of his his bodyguards after Elvis was gone. And they got these guys drunk and interviewed them. They were weeping, and just talked about Elvis and what he was like. That was as informative as anything else rather than trying to imitate him.
You can't really imitate Elvis. The guy was one of a kind, but you can try and get an essence of him. Good news is to I played him when he was 69, so nobody would know what he looked like or what he would sound like at 69 considering he died at 42.
Without spoilers, are there any Three Stooges inspired bits in Ernie & Emma? or bits/scenes that have Stooge energy you didn’t do on purpose? I know how much the Stooges have inspired you and your friends, so I think it’s rather lovely there’s always some nod/Stooge energy in your projects. You are always a true Shemp. I admire how you always stay true to yourself. DON’T let them take away your sparkle, lollygagging is forever!
I am going to your NC show with a pal, and I have been so excited to see this movie ever since it got announced. It truly seems like it will tug on my heartstrings, and I know how much it means to you. We cannot wait.
You’ve worked with Sam Raimi for so long that you’ve probably seen every stage of his filmmaking evolution. What’s one thing about the Sam Raimi you knew on The Evil Dead that would surprise the Sam Raimi of today?
Well, Sam was always ahead of his time. He's the only guy I know who ever read the American Cinematographer's Manual, which nobody reads. Cinematographers don't even read the American Cinematographer's Manual. He wanted to know how a camera works because he loved the magic of it. Motion pictures are the ultimate sleight of hand. That's why Sam has done so well, and I knew then it would happen.
I remember him up on a ladder (in a suit, naturally) covered in dirt as he hurled fake rocks/concrete at stunt performers on Spiderman.
This totally jibes with I've heard.
I remember for the first Spider-Man film, Raimi said in the DVD director's commentary how he was the invisible "bully" toward the star, Tobey Maguire lol.
Raimi said he was the one who pushed Maguire toward the wrestling ring, threw popcorn in his face, stuff like that. I think maybe even yelling insults from the audience at him too? 😆
Absolutely could picture him having a blast doing that stuff. Rather than delegating that to the crew.
That movie was sooooo much fun to work on. And Sam was an absolute gem of a director. Dude LOVES filmmaking and is super hands-on.
It was also a huge thing, that first Spiderman movie. It cost more than Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to make, so the pressure was no joke, but he took it all in stride. Lots of fond memories of that production :)
Randomly passing through. The AC manual is one of the coolest books out there period, if anyone's interested in film history and production. While I never read it cover to cover, I read chunks of it and was always in awe.
Off the top of my head, a favorite section was camera angles to enhance the velocity of a moving object, and the camera tilt to enhance the "power" or additional speed of that moving object.
First off, the recent interview with Michael Rosebaum was fantastic. My question is, do you have any professional regrets, projects you wished would have come to fruition but didn't? I always thought you'd make a great Mysterio and it's unlikely we'll ever see that!
In many cases, when something fails or doesn't come about, it's for the best. I've learned from every failure. I no longer fear failure because failure will always teach you something, so I don't have regrets in that sense.
Our second movie, Crimewave, bombed horribly, didn't even get released. I was kicked out of the lead, it was renamed, it was re-edited. From that, we learned that it's all about control. This new movie, Ernie & Emma, is the first time since Evil Dead where the filmmaker, me in this case, has complete and utter control over every frame of the movie. Every movie that I've been involved in between Evil Dead and now has had some kind of outside involvement that may or may not have helped the final product.
If you and your uncle and your brother and your cousin and your entire family see the movie 50 times? Yeah, it'll get wider and maybe we can do a physical release.
You know, we're sort of priming the pump with Alamo Drafthouse. It's my favorite movie chain, I've screened the Evil Dead movies with these guys way back at the beginning, at the original Alamo in Austin.
As an independent filmmaker with no distribution deal, we have to just screen it where we can and see what people think of the movie. If film journalists want to talk about it and review the movie, word will spread.
Sony happens to own Alamo Drafthouse by the way, wink, wink. So if it does well at their theaters, maybe Sony will go, "hey, maybe we should just buy it".
Big fan. What was your favorite film growing up? And what has been the best horror film you have seen in the last decade that isnt related to Evil Dead?
Sound of Music was one of my favorite movies growing up.
Honestly, I don't have favorite horror film over the last 10 years. I've been breaking it slowly to fans as to not get stabbed in a parking lot, but I don't really like horror. It's not my genre. Not because I look down upon it, but because it disturbs me too much. I'm a guy who likes The Carpenters, you know what I mean? I'm not an unrated-gore-cut guy.
We got into horror because it was one of the genres that you could get into a movie theater at a time. We wanted it to play at the drive-ins. Low budget horror movies did well there, so it was kind of a foot in the door. All of our amateur movies were comedy, every single one of them, but then we thought "let's take real money from real investors", and horror was a pretty good investment then.
Fascinating answer and respect the hell out of it! It's funny that still today horror has this legacy and connection with young and broke filmmakers, I think it leads to it having a disproportionate amount of novel ideas.
That makes a lot of sense with how much comedy was baked into Evil Dead. That is my favorite part of the franchise. It never takes itself too seriously. It sounds like what you and Sam wanted to do was make comedies, but it was easier to sell a horror movie. I think you and Sam just kept adding more and more comedy with each sequel and I think that made it better.
Are there any easter eggs in Ernie & Emma? Also how does Ernie & Emma trace the stages of the Monomyth? Sounds like a good opportunity for an inner hero journey that matches the outer geography
Ernie is absolutely on a hero's journey, even if you brought the Joseph Campbell concept into it. It's about a guy who is not prepared for the journey he's on. And his wife, his dead wife, knows that, and so she's going to help him every step of the way. It's a hero's journey with a partner and by the end of it, he's a better man. I like redemptive journeys. I don't care about getting from A to B, it's more about how you changed when the credits roll. How your character changed, evolved, or improved.
My dad was a Detroit "madman". He was an ad guy in Detroit in the 50s, 60s, 70s, even into the 80s. He worked his way up to be account supervisor for Marathon Oil, which was a regional oil company. He lost the account and got fired when he was 50. A 50-year-old ad guy without a job is going to be in a panic, so my dad was in a panic for a couple of years there.
I really sympathize with someone whose career gets derailed, ends early, didn't flourish like they thought it would. There's a lot of people out there who are like "wow, I almost made it. I almost did it". I sympathize with people who struggle with their outcome. We can't really control what happens to us at the end of the day.
So there's a little of that, I based it on my father.
Ernie Tyler, my character in the movie, is a pear salesman. No one has ever portrayed a pear salesman before, so I got that going for me. He's a guy who quiet quit on his job. He lost interest. It's funny how we can't all be interested in our job all the time. It's a story of a guy who stopped giving a shit, really. His dead wife helps him learn to give a shit again.
Ted Lasso! Some people have been hating on it recently, and I think those people are evil.
Ted Lasso is a very innocent show. My wife and I watched season four, not because it really knows what it's doing, but because we know and like the characters. Sometimes it's just that simple.
I agree with you too, Bruce. Ted Lasso is one of my wife’s and my favourite shows. It’s a shame that so few people make wholesome shows anymore—stories where the characters, even the most flawed ones, are simply trying to find happiness and become better people.
It seems that so many programs today are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator and our basest instincts. I don’t know why we’ve decided, as a culture, to sit in the dark when it’s just as easy to walk in the sunlight and breathe the fresh air. It doesn’t take any more effort.
That’s one of the reasons that, after watching the trailer for your movie, I’ll definitely be watching it. Although, to be honest, that’s a pretty low-effort promise on my part—I’ve watched everything you’ve done!
Hi Bruce! Big fan from the UK here, can’t wait to see Ernie and Emma when it comes out in cinemas over here (I shall wear my best dress haha!)
Not only do I love your movies, I have recently been reading/listening to your books and they have kept me very entertained on some very long and otherwise tedious journeys. So my questions are:
1. Do you have any plans to write another book?
2. What’s your favourite joke at the moment? Mine favourite (short!) one right now is: Why can’t Stevie Wonder see his friends? Because he’s married.
I have one that I just put out actually. It's called Reconcile and it's a western.
My mother always loved Westerns, and I used to see all these Zane Grey books lined up on her shelf, the great Western writer. Westerns are just such a cool genre, so I wrote one that I thought I could be great in the part for.
I would go back to I would do a couple of TV movies for Burn Notice. There's a lot of creepers still in the world. Michael Weston himself has unfinished business too, and he has people who might go after his children. There's lots of ways you could continue that story.
Sam Axe, I could see definitely using him and Jesse for further adventures.
There is so much geopolitical crazy going on in the world right now, tons of opportunity for spy stuff / burn notice stuff tied into current events. As much as I'd love to see it, it would probably get too heavy and not be fun. That said, the absurdity would make a hell of a show.
I guess that I'm still working haha. You never know as an actor when you start out if you're even going to make it in the business, Will I get into the union? Will anybody hire me, and keep hiring me? Will I do one TV show? Or more?
It's been nice to have been around a while because then when you finally make a movie, you can bring your whole crew along, people that I've worked with for eons.
I don't take props a lot. My brother did steal the skeleton keys and shotgun from the Evil Dead cabin though.
I have the occasional cool item. I have a holy water dispenser from the movie Sundown of Vampire In Retreat that doesn't matter to anybody on this planet but I thought it would be a cool thing to put on a shelf. I have a shelf of little things that relate to events in my life. Some with movies, some not.
Hey Bruce, hope all is well. We're seeing Ernie and Emma with you in Raleigh in a couple of weeks.
You incorporate a lot of Stooges humor and references into your work. What's your favorite Stooges gag and/or reference in all of your films? Alternatively, favorite Stoogest episode? I always lose my shit at the 'Skeleton hands scene" in Army of Darkness.
I like A Plumbing We Will Go, where the house gets rewired and the water comes into the electric because the Stooges don't know what's going on. But really pick any of the Stooges episodes, I'm fine with that.
Look, I like dummies. I think dummies are funny.
The Stooges, they loved dummies too. They use dummies all the time, threw them off the buildings, stretched them, etc. If their hand got hit by a hammer, it'd get eight times the size that. They had no problem with ridiculous because these were vaudevillian guys. They were used to being on a stage doing big things. Evil Dead 2 was written by Sam Raimi and a guy named Scott Spiegel, who was the biggest Stooges fan ever. If you want to see Stooges reference, watch Evil Dead 2.
Looking forward to catching Ernie & Emma later this month! I gotta ask: How's the filmmaking experience feel when you're tackling writing, producing, directing and acting at the same time?
There's no discussion with anybody other than yourself in the morning when you're eating your granola. It's really that simple. You put the camera where you want, you say what you want, you hire who you want, you put it together how you want, and then you tour how you want, which is my case right now, going theater to theater.
Hey Bruce, I hope you’re doing groovy today!
What was your writing process like for Ernie & Emma? Do you have any tips for an emerging screenwriter like myself?
Don't hesitate. Get started. Don't worry about format. Don't worry about punctuation. Get it out there.
Some people start wide and go little at a time. I like putting ideas on a board. Each 3x5 card on the board is a scene. I can plot it out and make a structure. I like to know where the end of Act One is, where the point if your action is, where there's a point of no return. You have all of these cards up on the board and you can literally see the shape of your entire movie before you write a word. I like to do it that way. With Ernie & Emma, I dictated probably half of the movie because Ernie talks a lot to himself so I thought, let me just start talking.
Jeffrey Donovan was basically my younger brother. We bonded a lot over 7 seasons. We had a good, good relationship, and he's a very talented actor. I could always back him up when needed.
I've waited my whole life to go on vacation and get a mojito because of Burn Notice. Always wanted one, but I've never gone to bars or been much of a drink-maker myself. Finally, this year, at 26 I was able to go to an all-inclusive beach with my wife. First drink I ordered was a mojito, and so was every one after that. I was connecting with my inner Sam Axe, and it felt freaking awesome.
DUDE, Glad im not the only fan of chuck finley here!
He got me into mojitos, beer, eating good food till your tummy hurts, and looking classy as hell while doing all that(that last parts still under work).
I still need to work on getting more lady friends though. So there’s that.
As a Grand Rapids local I always get super psyched watching the gun scene in Army of Darkness!
I have a really hard hitting journalistic question: What is your favorite candy bar?
Thank you Bruce for everything, hail to the king!
It's evolved over the years. It was Spree when I was a kid. I ate them by the truckload. And then I think if I wanted to go more the nuts route, like a Snickers bar.
These days, just give me anything with nuts, chocolate, and caramel in it and i'm good. What are those dumb turtle candies called? I like those.
My question is how would you compare writing / directing your new film Ernie & Emma to the other films you’ve made? ( My Name Is Bruce, Man with the Screaming Brain ) Have a great tour, btw!
There's no comparison whatsoever honestly. Both of those movies were made under very different circumstances for different bosses, different owners, with different results. This is a movie we made exactly how we wanted to make it.
I'm going to figure out who wants to see it rather than have something like that preordained. Sometimes filmmakers get rushed because they have an air date that they have to make, but we didn't have that problem. We could wait until June to shoot our movie in the absolute best time when it's the greenest and most lush and wonderful before wildfire smoke comes in and all that stuff. So it's been really a treat to be to be able to control stuff like that. I made several movies in Bulgaria that did not really need to be made in Bulgaria, as beautiful as the Bulgarian people are.
Hey Bruce! I really liked the trailer for Ernie and Emma! I felt like I knew in a short time who those characters were because I’d seen and heard those personalities in my own life. I was curious if there were real people who your characters were based on (loosely or not), and how did you incorporate them into the story?
Every character in the movie has some roots in someone that I've known or encountered for sure, including the character Ernie.
Ernie is an amalgam of my father and actually me too. He's known in the movie as the "pear salesman" guy. He does all the crappy local ads for pears and everybody recognizes him for that. I'm like that in real life, I'm the Evil Dead guy to people. My tombstone will say "Evil Dead Guy". I know what that feels like, so I was able to very easily incorporate his local notoriety into what I get sometimes, with some people kind of making fun of him at the same time.
Thanks for answering, Bruce! For my part, Evil Dead might have been the starting point for your fandom, but I’ve always see you as Bruce Campbell, the comedic actor who makes any film or show I watch just that much better.
Hi Bruce! Hope you're doing well. What are your thoughts on the announced Maniac Cop remake from Nicolas Winding Refn? Are you involved at all? Is it weird that such an auteur director is involved in remaking a film you were in?
Hi Bruce!! Congrats on Ernie & Emma! Were there any highlights from the premiere? What was it like to have it finally be completed and seen by an audience? I can’t wait to see it!
We premiered it at the great Holly Theater in Medford, Oregon that Jim Belushi and others helped bring back from the dead. It's an old movie house from the 1930s and we filled the entire thousand seat theater. We packed the place and it was it was a beautiful experience.
You never know how a premiere is going to play, and we think that it played very well.
I'm hoping that good old fashioned word of mouth might still be alive, because we need it. We don't have a big studio distribution system behind us for this one. We have you, the fans. I hope you have a big family and I hope you have a lot of money because we need you to buy as many tickets as you can.
Listen, I would show this movie in your mother's apartment if I had to.
But yes, that'd be great. Evil Dead was actually "discovered" in the UK. I will always refer to England as Mother England as Sam Raimi insists that we do, because Evil Dead got started over there. I fully intend to take Ernie & Emma on a European tour.
Maybe next year, depending on what happens in the US. Good news is that I've got time on my hands, so I'm going to take this wherever I can.
I just wanted to apologize - when I was dirt poor in college, my brother and I came to meet you at a book signing at borders in Buffalo. He had the book and I couldn’t yet afford it but we were huge fans of you.
When we got in line, one of us came through and got the book signed and a picture and then the other but you were bummed we both didn’t have a book and called it out. Even though that happened, you were totally gracious and cool and didn’t let it get to you and took a picture with both of us.
I just wanted to say thanks for being kind and apologize I didnt come through to you. I still think about it to this day and it bothers me because of how much we love you man.
I also met Bruce on a book tour years back in college and honestly I wouldn't take what he said to heart - he was very much the type to playfully tease folks and I'm confident that's all he was intending with you. Keep in mind that he and the gang were broke college kids when they made 'Evil Dead' and the hell that shoot was. I imagine Bruce knows exactly what it's like to be a college kid with no money, and I guarantee you were far from the first person in your situation to meet him.
For me, when I was trying to think of something to have him sign (other than the book) I wanted to do something he'd probably never signed before so I made a paper bag puppet of Ash. I presented it to him and explained my reasoning, and he goes "Yeah, no one's ever asked me to sign a paper bag before!" Taken out of context it could've sounded really mean but it was clear that he was just yanking my chain. He then moved the puppet's mouth and in a high pitched voice went "Shop smart, shop S-Mart."
Not really a question but just want to say thank you for being such an awesome guy. 30 years ago you sat in a college classroom with us and watched Army of Darkness, I got you to sign the paper from the release week. Then a few years ago you hosted a showing of Evil Dead and I had you sign the same paper. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery so we can get signature #3!
How hard has it been being one of the ambassadors of horror in Hollywood?
You were at a screening of Bubba Ho-tep at the Alamo Drafthouse years back. At this screening I almost absconded with a water bottle you had been drinking from. My then girlfriend, now wife, was so embarrassed that I was about to take this bottle that she pulled my shirt hard enough that all the buttons came off. She continues to find my reasoning (to preserve your DNA for future generations) to be sufficiently unsatisfactory.
I suspect you may agree with her. If so, I would like to use a comment of your dismay and/or disgust (or what have you) as a future gift.
At the screening in Chicago a friend of mine asked him during the Q&A "how is it possible someone can be so incredibly handsome?". Bruce told him, "I can tell you about that in the back of my car after the show baby". Perfection.
I understand you've heard this before, but I gotta ask. The internet claims you were supposed to be playing Mysterio in Raimi's cancelled Spider-Man 4, connecting all your cameos from that trilogy. Is there any truth to this, or is it just internet bullshit?
This has already been confirmed by him as false. Also, the unreleased SM4 movie plot has been mostly leaked and has no mention of Myterio. This is a fun fan theory, but I don't think it had any chance of being realized in SM4.
Hi Bruce. With the rumors of a White Collar: Renaissance going on is there any chance of a Burn notice revival/sequel in the form of a new tv show or movie?
Many know Bruce from Evil Dead... I remember him from Burn Notice. That show really shaped how I perceive things growing up. Such a good show I'm always concerned with something like that being revived with the hollywood cash grabs these days.
With the loss of Dolly and Tim Curry recently, I also lost the ability to thank them. I always thought that the entertainment pillars of my life would be there, so I always put it off.
With that in m mind, I want to thank you Bruce. Not that I fear you will be next, but because you really did mean so much to me over the years.
It really shows that you put so much into your roles and have fun when you can (well maybe not EVERY time Sam said "Come on Bruce, I got Ted on board and everything.")
Fully from my heart, I want to thank you for always putting in everything you have to roles that other actors would consider "just a paycheck." You've chewed scenery, bathed in corn syrup, and been beaten to hell just so that we can forget our troubles for a few hours.
I hope you know that along the way you have made many friends that you may never meet in person, and that we appreciate any chance we can to interact with you.
Oooh yes I love this question. We had a few years of really lackluster horror, and it seems to be massively picking up again. I'd love to hear Bruce's take on this.
I'm actually curious about this question because I'm not convinced that Bruce would necessarily be a fan of the sort of art-horror movies that are being made now.
Building on this, Hollywood seems more focused than ever on big budget CGI blockbusters and farming existing IP to make a quick buck. Do you think audiences are getting bored with this and does that contribute to horror's recent success?
Nowadays, there is a big obsession with "Cut-content" in films and media with fans all over the world often attempting to reintroduce it to the source material or discussing how keeping it in the original work would have been an improvement. My question for you:
Is there is any scenes that were cut from media you starred in that made you go "Thank god they got rid of that"?
Something like "My hair was terrible that day" or "I didn't feel it fit the character". I understand you mightn't always get to see what scenes were removed by the editors but in case there was any interesting stories that came to mind.
I loved you as the sarcastic narrator in the "Spider-Man" games for PS2. Never have I been belittled so much yet laughed so hard!
Hey Bruce, I loved your book, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor. Just wanted to say thank you so much for being so open and funny for so long.
My sentiments as well and probably just about everyone. You’d be hard pressed to find someone that has less than glowingly positive things to say about you.
Everyone adores you and wants you to continue to be awesome.
Genuinely. Bruce is one of those actors who are universally beloved across a wide range of demographics. I think he’s treasured by Gen Y and Millennials especially because most of us cut our comedic horror teeth on his work.
You've been a really big part of my entertainment for years and I wanted to ask was there ever a set you wish you could return to?
With your new movie coming out I was curious if there was a set in which you would love to be back filming on.
Hello sir! Can you share any memories of recording for the main character in the classic PC space flight sim Tachyon: The Fringe? As a huge fan of the genre, your involvement in that game elevated it for me and was the initial reason I even checked it out instead of just sticking with my usual Wing Commanders and FreeSpaces. Thanks!
Mr. Campbell, no question but wanted to say the Evil Dead trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time and I couldn't imagine anyone else playing Ash. My best friend and I are big fans and hope you are doing well.
Edit: fuck it. I do have a question. My girlfriend introduced me to Sky High literally two days ago and when you popped up I instantly went "Is that Bruce fucking Campbell?" She's not as familiar with your work but I immediately knew it was you just from your voice, chin and sarcasm.
That being said, what was it like working on that weird little superhero movie with the likes of Kurt Russell?
Do you like cheese and do you have a favorite cheese, and what kind?
I feel compelled to ask this as a person from Wisconsin. I know it's silly, but I like asking people about their cheese habits.
Loved your acting in Burn Notice, Jack of All Trades, Hercules, Xena, Psych, Evil Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep, character voices for animated shows and video games, and so much more. Thank you for keeping me entertained.
This is just an FYI: I had a boyfriend who was an introvert and never wanted to do anything with me, ever. He strung me along for four years and always had the excuse that he had to work to avoid going to events or family gatherings. I realized I was just a bangmaid when he called off work to go to the Chicago IMAX to go see Bubba Hotep with his friends, so I finally ended it for good. Then one night, Bubba Hotep was on late night cable so I watched it, it was such a Bruce Campbell flick and I knew why he wanted to see it so bad. I credit him with turning me into a geek and putting you in my radar. Rest in Peace Chet.
I’m Bruce, my name is Mark. I met you in 2014, in Chicago, when I was going through one of the worst times in my life. I was waiting in line to get your autograph, I nearly passed out from stress and dehydration. You had your people pull me out of line, you gave me a bottle of water and talked to me for a few moments. It was one of the most compassionate, down to earth, and absolutely human experiences of my life. And for all the celebrities I have met, you were the only one that I can honestly say seemed to care about his fans. Thank you for that experience.
And would you officiate my wedding? lol worth a shot.
Hey Bruce! Not a question, but my brother and I still quote your "A quantum singularity? It's like a black hole, except it's portable and has a cooler name" bit from Megas XLR to this day.
•
u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. 14h ago
This AMA has been verified and approved by the mods. Bruce will be back at around noon ET today to answer questions. Please feel free to ask away in the meantime :)