In the world of cult-cinema and horror movies, Bruce Campbell is somewhat of a king. (sorry)
It’s not surprising then that, after taking part in his first Reddit AMA back in 2011, there were a huge amount of redditors who wanted him back to ask more questions about his career and current project. Thankfully, he obliged, and here’s what we learnt.
1. Campbell doesn’t think that he could act back in the day
“Ash feels very different now, because now I know how to act. The very first Ash, I couldn’t act my way out of a wet paper bag, so I’m actually very glad to go back and fix Ash now like George Lucas fixed his movies.
I’m going to do the same thing. I’m going to go back there and we’re going to create an Ash that can speak in full sentences now, so I’m looking forward to that.”
2. Campbell has been imitating Reagan since childhood
“Playing Reagan in Fargo was great. My buddy, John Cameron, who produces the show – we’re high school buddies. We go all the way back and my kids grew up in the Reagan era during my formative years, so John and I would imitate him mercilessly because he was a very “imitatible” president. His mannerisms, the way he spoke and everything – and you know, look, every actor wants to do a couple of things in life. Like, I’ve played Elvis. Now I’ve done Ronald Reagan. I’ve played a cowboy.”
3. Campbell didn’t just use one chainsaw
“The answer is that we do have multiple chainsaws.
We have functional ones. We have what I call Mr. Wrigley; where you can do fight scenes and you won’t hurt anybody, because it’s more of a plastic chainsaw. But yeah…it builds up the right arm a little bit, and the reason why I cut my right hand off in the movie is because I’m left handed. So, I wanted to be left with my left hand, because if I cut off my left hand then my right hand would be left.”
4. He’s sadly resigned to the fact that Scorsese won’t be in touch
“I’ll be honest with you. I never play that ‘What if’ game. Mostly fans like to play that ‘What if’ game. Actors are way too practical – Like Marty Scorcese… he’s never going to bust my door down. I’ve made peace with that.
Bobby Deniro, I’m probably never going to work with the guy. I’m down with that. I live in the world of reality, even though I make my living out of fantasy.”
5. Cuts? Campbell doesn’t struggle with cuts!
“The Evil Dead movies were lots of injuries but I only went to hospital once. During “Army of Darkness,” I was flipping a stunt guy down some stairs and the breast plate of my costume dug into my chin and after the take we’re like, ‘You’re bleeding!’ and I’m like, ‘Oh really?’ And I look down – my breast plate was covered with blood.
So they took me, in full Ash costume, in makeup — I already had 8 cuts on my face, they were from other parts of the movie– and I got in the emergency room and the doctor they got goes, ‘…Which one is it?’ I’m like, ‘Can’t you tell?’
So they stitched me up and the nice thing is, I just showed back up on set with a new cut. You couldn’t even tell. If this was a soap opera it would have been a bad situation. Because it was Army of Darkness no one seemed to care, so we just kept shooting.”
Did you see the AMA? Did you ask a question? Let us know if you think we missed one of the more interesting answers out in the comments below.
