Review and interview by NICOLE M. ROBERTSON,
The Oakland Press, July 8, 2001
Bruce Campbell doesn't want to be boxed in. He's an actor -- not a movie star -- and that's how he wants it.
The Oakland County native, who got his first big break in the cult hit "Evil Dead" films, says it was fearlessness that left the scar on his chin that became a personal trademark.
It was fearlessness that also got him where he is in showbiz.
"You can fret yourself out of stuff," he said in a recent interview. "You can't operate on fear.
"Part of that is what you perceive yourself as. If I think I'm a movie star, oh I could never do that ... but if you think of yourself as an actor -- I get more parts available as a result. I don't have a perception of I don't do certain things."
Unafraid of looking foolish in a role, he always throws himself into a role chin first -- thus the title of his book.
Campbell first became known as hapless zombie-victim Ash, in the movies "Evil Dead," "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness," directed by Groves High School pal Sam Raimi, who went on to direct "The Quick and the Dead" and produce the hit series "Xena: Warrior Princess" among other shows. But Campbell also has had a slew of smaller parts on higher-profile projects such as "The X-Files," the sit-com "Ellen," the Coen Brothers' movie "The Hudsucker Proxy," and "McHale's Navy."
He also starred in the innovative Fox series, "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," which lasted one season, and the syndicated "Jack of All Trades," which was recently canceled, also after one season.
The bigger the movie, the smaller the part, he jokes in the entertaining book that took him four years to write.
Smart and funny, Campbell jokes a lot throughout this irreverent look at his life as a thespian who started in community theater and squeezed friends and family members for funds to make low-budget movies with his buddies, Raimi and Rob Tapert.
And to hear him tell it, the trip so far has been a lot of fun, despite his having being doused with gallons of Karo-syrup "blood" in 100-degree temperatures, hit over the head with various implements and treated to Raimi's ingenious torture device designed to flip Campbell 360 degrees in front of a moving camera.
He got close to a really big role on a really big show about a year ago, when he was a finalist for the starring role of John Doggett on "The X-Files" -- a role that went to Robert Patrick ("Terminator 2").
"That was fine. I gave it a good shot," Campbell says. "('X-Files' producer) Chris Carter asked me to read for it, and sometimes as an actor, that is enough. That is a very serious show, and you know, sometimes it takes that stupid humor to make the job easier. They work long hours. I certainly wish Robert Patrick well. It's a grind."
But it's just another job to a working stiff in the acting trade.
"It's funny to see big movie stars running to television," he comments. "for years, TV was the bastard stepchild. People would say to work on TV you must be a hack. Of course, when work started tightening up, they all go running to TV."
Campbell did the star thing, too -- moving from Michigan to Los Angeles, where he lived for 10 years.
"It's a very weird place," he said by phone from an L.A. hotel room. "I'm noticing it every time I come back here, a little bit of a creepy vibe here. It's sort of a cliche on wheels. People who spend way too much time on themselves."
Mainstream success in film and TV projects has allowed him to do new work on "real" stories. He recently directed a documentary, "Fanalysis," which turns the camera on people he meets in his appearances at sci-fi and horror conventions. The kind of people who have seen "Evil Dead" 200 times and ask Campbell to sign chain saws as mementos.
"I think it's their outlet," Campbell says, almost in awe. "We interviewed a guy who's a paramedic, and his job is a nightmare, and I think this is a healthy release. They're no weirder than anyone else who's doing make-believe."
Like the actors they admire.
After a taste of the fantasy of Hollywood life, Campbell's search for reality led him to a home in Jacksonville, Ore., where his observation of clear-cut forestry led him and his wife, Ida Gearon, to film another documentary, one focusing on land management, which is in the editing stage.
Writing the memoir was a new experience for Campbell, and a "huge challenge of pulling from a different side of my brain."
"Hopefully, with the book, you can understand my whole point of view," he said. "I don't appreciate being labeled as one thing. I've actually done more work and more TV shows than any of the 'Evil Dead' movies."
Though short on details at times, the book is nonetheless fun to read, filled with amusing anecdotes and black-and-white snapshots and written with boyish charm and wit.
Campbell's casual, chatty style and intelligent but modest insights make this a great book for anyone interested in pop movie culture.