Ashley Hillard
In “My Name is Bruce”, B-movie legend, ‘chinny’ Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead”, “Alien Apocalypse”, “The Man with the Screaming Brain”, “Terminal Invasion”) plays an exaggerated version of himself – a veteran of a dozen horror movies who is mistaken for his character Ash from the ”Evil Dead” trilogy and forced to fight a real monster in a small town in Oregon. As you do. ASHLEY HILLARD had a chance to chat to the actor about art imitating life – and vice versa.
Me: the fans of the series would be pretty interesting to meet, I’m sure, from town to town.
Bruce: One would hope.
Me: So do you prefer films or books or do you just like doing everything that’s creative?
Bruce: Uh, yeah you know I come from Detroit and they have a term there called job rotation, uh it was a way to keep factory workers from being bored. You work on tires one day, you work on fenders the next day, you know that type of deal. So I like it for that, I like everything creative, I like everything in the arts, in this film business but I like a mixed bag too, that way you’re not doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Me: Is there a genre you’d like to tackle you haven’t done yet as far as films?
Bruce: No cause I’m realistic, I know that I couldn’t walk in and get 2 million dollars for some uh feel good movie about a person with disabilities. Probably couldn’t get that made. So you know, I live in a world of reality so what I try and do is within the genre, just trying to expand the genre. My Name is Bruce is not really a horror movie at all. It’s this Bob Hope comedy disguised as a horror movie. I’m trying to just, uh, move around the within the genre as much as I can.
Me: Well that’s great, I look forward to watching it. Do you have any plans for upcoming projects you’re excited about?
Bruce: Season 3 of Burn Notice, the number one show on cable, looking forward to getting back to that.
Me: You’re in film, you’re in TV, you’re in books, you’re all over the place! Must be exciting.
Bruce: That’s uh, that’s my job.
Me: How do you do it from Oregon? Is that your base? Do you come to Los Angeles as often as you can or do you stay away?
Bruce: Uh no, I almost never come to Los Angeles, that’s the beauty of it. That’s how I’m able to succeed. When you live in Los Angeles you get the spores, the spores get into your head and you forget how to do things. In Oregon, it snows and it rains and you get weather. You don’t forget those things. The point is it gives you a very healthy perspective, living outside of the industry.
Me: I could see that. There your family and friends keep you grounded….
Bruce: No my neighbors do because my neighbors are ranchers and loggers, so they don’t care about movies. Movies are make believe and borderline worthless.
Me: Do you work the land too? Are you into living that kind of more rustic lifestyle?
Bruce: I live a very rustic lifestyle. I have no cell service where I live and um I kinda like it that way. It offers a difference between going off to the big city and working and everything is crazy and noisy and obnoxious, I want to come home to nothing. So, I’m home doing nothing until I go back and doing something.
Me: That works. So are you planning on building a studio out there? Are you going to make Oregon, like what (Robert) Rodriguez has with Austin, where you bring Hollywood to you?
Bruce: Oregon, actually, there’s already a studio in Medford, Oregon. It’s a former pear packing facility, Land Mind productions, yeah. They have a facility here, so, yeah it’s already slowly happening in it’s own crude way.
Me: That’s great. Well I appreciate your time so much Bruce, thank you.
Bruce: Right on. Thank you very much.
Me: Enjoy the weather up there. I’m sure it’s cold!
Bruce: I will, no no, I’m enjoying every bit of it.
MY NAME IS BRUCE is now on DVD
