Actors may enjoy fame, but they also face public ridicule when they cannot live up to their on-screen personas. Subjective notions of success and failure are shoved in the faces of people whose shelf life is about as long as cottage cheese on a July afternoon. — Bruce Campbell, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor
Bruce Campbell is a funny guy.
This, of course, isn't news to his legions of fans. If any actor has managed to turn his on-screen persona into a cottage industry, it's B-movie cult icon Campbell, who achieved said cult status in Sam Raimi's legendary Evil Dead movies. From his iconic role as Ash, Campbell went on to star in a number of other cheesy-but-fun cult flicks and more recently distinguished himself in the well-received Bubba Ho-Tep. Even his television roles (most notably in The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Xena: Warrior Princess, and Hercules) have tended to find him swimming out of the mainstream. If there was ever a guy whose career might lend itself to caricature, it's certainly Campbell.
But instead of turning into his generation's Bela Lugosi, Campbell has turned his onscreen persona and his body of work into a sort of inside joke for his fans and takes pride in churning out work that so many people find entertaining in spite of — or perhaps because of — its lack of serious intent. As he points out in his book If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, there's no shame in working hard and figuring out how to make a decent living in a profession that regularly chews people up and spits them out before they even get a foot in the door. It's this complete lack of pretension that makes Campbell so likable and so enduring.
Campbell is currently touring the US with his latest venture, another cheesy-but-fun movie called My Name Is Bruce, in which he is both star and director (the script is by Mark Verheiden, who has penned episodes of Smallville and Battlestar Galactica). Early in the film's life cycle, it was speculated that it would be a straight-to-DVD release. Then last year fans learned that the special effects were being done on a level that would render the movie suitable for the big screen and that a theatrical release would indeed happen this fall. And toward the end of October, Campbell took the show on the road, booking dates in theaters across the country where the film would be screened, followed by a Q&A with the director. The screenings are selling out quickly, so I was lucky to get tickets about a week before he came to town here in New Haven, Connecticut.
Article comments
1 - Josh Lasser
It's always great when you can rearrange reels of a film and not have anyone realize.
2 - Lisa McKay
What's funny is that when he mentioned the reels, I could pinpoint the exact moment in the movie where I thought to myself that the editing left much to be desired. I'll be picking up the DVD for sure, so it'll be interesting to see how much more sense the plot makes in the right order.
3 - El Bicho
I saw him speak at Comic Con '07 when they were pushing Brisco on DVD. He killed. His Old Spice commercials are funny. Will have to give this a gander when he comes to town.
4 - Jordan Richardson
I LOVE Bruce Campbell. Sounds like a riot!
5 - Arlo J. Wiley
Bruce Campbell is something of a god.
He's coming a few hours away from here in the next few days, but unfortunately I won't be able to go. Sounds like he doesn't disappoint!