Bruce Campbell at Walker Stalker Con London
Horror icon Bruce Campbell took to the panel stage in London this past weekend to host a Q and A with attendees of the third annual Walker Stalker Con. This was an opportunity for fans of Bruce to ask all their burning questions, and they didn’t waste a single minute. During the hour-long panel he shared many a story, here of some of the highlights:
The future of Ash Vs Evil Dead looks uncertain…
The first question of the panel began with the words ‘In Ash Vs Evil Dead…’ at which point Bruce Campbell, perhaps jokingly, interjected with ‘Ash Vs Evil Dead, the television show that’s about to be cancelled’. This revelation was met with resounding boos to which Campbell retorted – ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina. If you don’t pay for Starz, they’re gonna cancel it.’ At several points later on during the panel he continued to indicate that there might not be much more of the show. When asked by someone whether he’d consider playing Negan on The Walking Dead his response was ‘is the role available? Because my show’s about to be cancelled so I’m thinking I might be available.’ Later still, after a fan thanked him for Ash Vs Evil Dead, he replied ‘You’re very welcome. Last season coming up, ever. You’re welcome for those three seasons.’ An official announcement has yet to be made.
He won’t be playing Batman anytime soon…
“Why would I want to spend seven months on a set not being able to urinate?! Ask Ben Affleck, ask Christian Bale what was the worst part of playing Batman? That’s gonna come up.”
The car from Evil Dead is in all of Sam Raimi’s films…
“The car has been in every single one of Sam Raimi’s movies. Every movie Sam Raimi has ever made including what movie? The Quick and the Dead. That’s a Western. What is a 1977 Delta Royale 88 doing in a Western? Sam Raimi had it stripped down to its chassis and built a wagon on top of it. The car was put onto a shipping container and shipped to Auckland New Zealand, it’s the same car that Sam Raimi’s mother took us to see A Clockwork Orange at the theatre in – she didn’t know what we were going to see.”
Bruce Campbell at Walker Stalker Con London
Bruce Campbell pitched the idea of a Lucille-style weapon to Greg Nicotero back in the eighties –
“Guess what, in 1988 I was smoking in the back of a Station Wagon with Greg Nicotero. The great Greg Nicotero, Mr. Fancy Pants we call him now, but back then he was just a special effects guy. We were in his Station Wagon and I said ‘Greg you know what the character Ash should have if we do more of these? A bat, with like barbed wire wrapped all the way around it’, and Greg chuckles and goes ‘that’s a stupid idea! no one would use that idea’ – Oh yeah Greg? I’m letting you all know right now, this is my idea!”
He has an interesting take on his characters in the Spiderman franchise –
“Did you realise in the first Spider-man movie I name the character, as the ring announcer. He wants to be called the human spider, I tell him that sucks. Without my character, this billion dollar franchise would be called ‘The Human Spider’. Spider-man 2 – the good one – Spider-man wants to get in to see Mary-Jane Watson in a play, but he’s late. I play the snooty usher, I won’t let him in – why? Because he’s late. Technically I’m the only character who has ever defeated Spider-man. And now we get to Spider-Man 3 where I play the French Maître d’. Spider-Man comes to me for help. How often do superheroes come to mortals for help? Zero times in the history of motion pictures. He comes for my help to marry off Mary-Jane, do I help him? No because he was kinda a dick to me in the previous two movies.”
Health and Safety on Evil Dead was pretty slack…
“In the first Evil Dead, we used live ammunition from a real shotgun. My character at one point hears a noise outside and he turns and shoots through a big glass window and it shatters. The easiest way to do that with no money is to just shoot a window with a shotgun. The only difference is the camera guy is right outside. His name was Tim and I would go ‘Tim wave your hand, Tim don’t stand there’ ‘but the camera’s there’ so ‘Tim turn the camera on and then you have to not be there’. It was kinds like that. We had a lot of guesstimates. It was pretty stupid, now it’s all digital. We have not fired a real gun on Ash Vs Evil Dead yet. They’ve all been digital flashes.”
Read all our Walker Stalker London coverage here.
