Bruce Campbell Is Making an Ash of Himself
 Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams
In 1981, The Evil Dead, a low-budget horror flick made by a trio of childhood friendsâSam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Bruce Campbellâcame out of Detroit and changed the horror landscape forever.
The Evil Dead was followed by fan favorites Evil Dead 2 (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), with the series making Ash Williams, played by Campbell, an enduring horror icon.
Although Raimi, Tapert, and Campbell have all gone on to great success with other projects, fans have never stopped clamoring for more Deadites, more chain saw, more boomstickâand especially more Ash. In 2013, the trio coproduced a well-meaning but ultimately unsatisfying remake of Evil Dead, directed by Fede Alvarezânot that it was a bad film, but it was missing the blend of copious gore, smarmy one-liners, and Three Stoogesâstyle slapstick that was the trademark of the original films.
Now, finally, the fans are getting what they wantâon TV. Ash vs Evil Dead premieres on Starz this weekend, with Raimi at the helm and Campbell back as an aging Ash, forced to face the Deadites again after 30 years. (In a rare vote of confidence for the show, the network ordered a second season before the first episode aired.) The series also stars Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica), Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, and Jill Marie Jones. Bruce Campbell filled us in on playing Ash again, his hatred of sex scenes, and his love of marijuana.
Interview by Christine Colby
Photographs courtesy of Starz Entertainment, LLC
 Sounds like with Ash vs Evil Dead, all the elements are in place to finally satisfy the fans.Â
Weâve got the pooh-bah back, the man to give us the street cred.
Well, I think itâs also the combination of you and Sam and Rob as the three-headed Hydra of awesomeness.
Itâs not a bad partnership, because we never deadlock. With three you never get a tie.
What did you like best and hate most about revisiting Ash?
Working with the boysâI liked that the most. And the blood, the fake blood. Iâd forgotten how much I hate it. Hate it, hate it. I have to put old-lady plastic on all the furniture in my trailer. I have a rubber strip that goes all the way to the bathroom, so that if I have to go to the bathroom I can pull all my crap off and glop it on to the floor. So thatâs definitely the worst. You have it on your hand, you touch your cup, put it over there, you wash that hand, then you pick it up with the other hand, itâs on that hand now, you touch your ear, itâs on your ear, you pick up your paper, itâs there, itâs on your iPadâeverything is pink and sticky!
Pink and sticky, huh? Hey, that works for our readers.
Yeah, I guess so!
Do you ever feel sort of bullied by your fans, constantly requesting Ash, and more Ash, all the time?
But itâs good bullying! Itâs not like theyâre yelling, âYou suck!â Theyâre yelling that they want more. And we would have enjoyed making more had Army of Darkness not bombed.
Itâs so hard to think of that as a bomb.
Yeah, but you donât have the history; you donât have the perspective. I mean, it was $13 millionâwe went way over budget, we lost studio control, we had to shoot a new ending, it didnât test well. It cost 13 million and made 13 million, which killed it. Killed it dead as a doornail. Do you know, Iâve starred in one studio movie in my life, and it was Army of Darkness. Iâve done small parts ⌠but My Name Is Bruce wasnât studio; it was released by whoever, later. Same with Bubba Ho-Tep. That wasnât a studio movie; MGM picked it up later. But it just shows you that the series was dead as a doornail, with nails in the coffin, but thankfully Anchor Bay did a lot of DVD reissues and refueled peoplesâ interest in the filmmaking process with behind-the-scenes [features], missing scenes, and all that crap. And now thereâs 18 versions of Army of Darkness; you canât get rid of the thing. Itâs on American Movie Classics, for godâs sake. Ben-Hur, and Army of Darkness. Itâs kinda awesome.
But thatâs what killed it, so everyone whoâs going, âWhy did you guys stop making those?â Itâs because you guys werenât interested in the last one! Nobody went to see it, thatâs why. But it sort of picked up steam after the fact. And then we did the remake a couple of years ago, which was well received, but we still got the sense of close, but no cigar.
I think everyone liked it; it was just different.
It was different, and they missed the humor. They were like, âWhereâd that go?â
They missed you!
And they missed Sam, too.
I enjoyed it; I just look at it as a different thing.
Thatâs how we look at it, too, as producers. Itâs another guyâs interpretation of those events. But now weâre in control again. Weâre done fighting city hall, you know what I mean?
Do you ever wish it were, like, Brisco County that had captured the publicâs attentionâ
We did when we started!
But what if, to this day, everyone was just like, âBrisco!â and had kind of forgotten Ash, and just wanted you to be Brisco all the time?
Um, no, Ash is a pretty fun character to play. Brisco was a lot of fun, but Ash is probably more fun, as there are less restrictions on his behavior. Like, he can have bad habits and it doesnât matter.
Yeah, in the new show, itâs a little raunchier. Itâs kind of like sex, drugs, and rock ânâ roll Ash.
It is. Itâs sex, drugs, and B-side rock ânâ roll. You know what I mean? Weâre gonna make a lot of alternative bands really happy. Because in almost every episode weâre using some song that makes you go, I kinda remember that. Or the old father watching the show goes, âHey, I met your mother when they were playing that music!â
Thatâs your idea of what Ash would listen to?
Oh, for sure, not the pop rock ânâ roll. Not the stuff that I wouldnât listen to in high school. Stuff like AC/DCâI wouldnât touch it. I was in Radio Speech, and we would sometimes play music for the study hall. And I would play, like, KISS or something, and put my finger on the turntable and just drag it to death slowly for like a minute, and peopleâd be pounding on the door, and Iâm like [mischievous look], Hmm, and Iâd just kill KISS or AC/DC over the course of a minute, and then Iâd put on this piece of music called âCorn Flakesâ that was like harpsichord music.
Harpsichord music. Is that what you listen to at home?
I listen to Lawrence Welk. Iâve taped it. I have 30 episodes of Lawrence Welk on tape.
Okay.
You donât even know who Lawrence Welk is, do you?
No, I do, I vaguely do, Iâm just not sure if Iâve ever seen the show.
You need to check it out. Itâs so awesome, in a retro way.
Is he a crooner?
Well, he had a band. And it wasâthey played music, they sang songs, they would dance. It was an old-fashioned entertainment show.
When are we going to have the Bruce Campbell Variety Hour? I think the time is right.
I could do a Halloween special.
Yes, you could!
Iâll do a Halloween special.
Okay, we have that on record.
Well, I have a special this Halloweenâitâs called Ash vs Evil Dead.
Thatâs a really good point. Okay, maybe next Halloween.
Yeah, next year.
What was it like doing an Ash sex scene?
Oh, I, uh ⌠I donât like sex scenes. Theyâre awkward.
I wonder, though, with Ash, if it was supposed to come across a little awkward.
Well, thatâs fine. So it worked. Iâve never liked them. I met my wife on a movie; she was a costume designer, and one of our first scenes was a love scene, so she knows what theyâre like on-set. Theyâre very staged, very choreographedâdonât show this, donât show that, cheat this way, cheat that wayâso I donât like them. Thereâs nothing organic. If I canât actually have sex with that woman, Iâm not interested!
I couldnât help but notice in the first episode that Ash uses Magnums.
He grabbed two of them! That was my idea. Because it might be a big night.
We were enjoying your High Times interview in the office earlier today.
Hrm.
Yeah, I had no idea. I learned a lot about you today.
Well, Iâm an Oregon boy, you know. Itâs a green, green state.
Do you have any smoking or growing tips for our readers, who of course would only indulge if they had medical-marijuana prescriptions?
My tip is, if you can watch it grow out of Godâs green earth, a little seed that you plant [he slides a plant on the table over to him, bends over it, and peers at it], and you know what goes in that, and you know where itâs been, I have no issue with that. Iâve had my drug talk with my kids. If you get a little pill in front of you, and you have no fucking idea whatâs in that pill, you donât know what itâs been cut with, you donât know what the doses are. You think they give a shit about your health, the people who made that little Ecstasy pill? No. They could give a shit about you and your liver and whatever itâs going to do to your brain and all that, so yes, there are downsides to anything you ingest thatâs not a superfood, I suppose, but thatâs my feeling. Thatâs the only medicine in my cabinet. Iâm a 57-year-old man, and the average guy in his fifties has four medications.
Thatâs probably true.
It is. Theyâve got boner medications; itâs usually heart shit. God forbid you should change your diet, right? Or get off your ass; get off your couch.
Well, you have to be very active to train to be Ash. Itâs always a very physical role.
Well, I stretch more now. I blew my hamstring fighting a stunt guy on Burn Notice; I donât want that to happen again.
I watched the New York Comic Con panel on the show, and Sam said, âThe audience loves it when Bruce suffers.â Why do you think that is?
Itâs just something heâs gotten in his head; heâs convinced of it.
You donât think heâs right?
No, it happened at a bar mitzvah. Sam would do magic shows for bar mitzvahs in high school. He was a magician by trade. And I was his assistant, âHung Low.â And whenever I would do something âwrong,â he would punish me. And the kids just thought that was awesome.
So this has been going on since then?
It happened early on, yeah. A little glint in his eye, lightbulb went off: Bruce in pain equals kidsâ enjoyment. It hasnât left him.
Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell, and Sam Raimi with the Classic
You also mentioned that you take a little bit of revenge on the Classic [Raimiâs old car that he sneaks into every film he directs].
Only because he shouldnât love that car so much! Itâs an unnatural love.
And he took it all the way to New Zealand to shoot.
Oh, it got put on a boat.
I saw it in the pilot, and I was thinking, Is that the same car?
Oh, I know for a fact itâs the same car.
So he paid money to have that shippedâ
We paid money to have it shipped.
Itâs one of those things that fans love, though.
It is impressive, his obsession with that car, if you really follow it through his movies. Iâd love to cut a series of clips together of the carâs performances. Itâs in Darkman; did you know that? Itâs hanging from the helicopter, the big helicopter sequence. Uncle Benâs car in Spider-Man; thatâs the car. AÂ Simple Plan; itâs that car. And The Quick and the Dead; he had it torn down into a chassis and built a wagon on top of it. Itâs in Oz the Great and Powerful; there are car parts in the tinkerâs shop, all painted bronze and stuff. Oh, yeah. Itâs in every one of his movies. The Classic. And you must refer to it as âthe Classic.â
Oh, of course. Iâll even capitalize it.
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  Ash vs Evil Dead: Bruce Campbell Is Making an Ash of Himself Bruce Campbell Is Making an Ash of Himself In 1981, The Evil Dead, a low-budget horror flick made by a trio of childhood friendsâSam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Bruce Campbellâcame out of Detroit and changed the horror landscape forever.
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