NOTE: This email based interview was conducted around the time of the Bubba Ho Tep DVD release in the UK (2005-2006). My interview technique wasn’t quite as good as it maybe could have been (infact, its bloody cringeworthy).
1: Bubba Ho Tep. Your first major role for a while to get a cinema run. What attracted you to the script?
Bruce:Because it was the weirdest one I’d ever read, but it also had a nice, sweet underlying story of what you do with old people.
2: What were your feelings on playing perhaps THE American Icon of the 20th century?
Bruce:It wasn’t that big of a deal, because nobody has done him at 68 years old, so I was really just going for a bitter, dried up old southern man.
3: How do you feel about the way Hollywood marginalises \’genre\’ production, despite its obvious commercial power?
Bruce:Well, I never have cared about that, because it’s the world that I know and love. Hollywood is a bore sometimes, because they’re too afraid to try interesting or different stuff.
4: If you could play any role in any film past, present or future, which would it be?
Bruce:I never play that game. I take the lemons as they come (as in roles) and squeeze them for all they’re worth.
5: Why?
Bruce:Because I may do make believe for a living, but I live in the world of reality.
6: What do you consider to have been the worst professional decision you have made regarding a role in a film?
Bruce:I have too many to tell you, but the only things I regret are the things I didn’t do.
7: The Evil Dead videogames: Do you feel that the stories contained within them could fit into the already twisted ED mythos?
Bruce:Well, the games are in the spirit of the films if that’s what you mean, so I suppose so.
8: I really enjoyed your foray into documentary film-making with ‘Fanalysis’. Is this a direction you can see your career taking in the future?
Bruce:Yes, I love docos, because they tend to evolve as you go and write themselves. I’m editing a very big land use documentary currently.
9: What are your thoughts on seeing ‘horror’ directors like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson finally getting budgets that allow them to fully visualise their imaginations?
Bruce:I think it’s absolutely fabulous.
10: And finally, given the rumours of a proposed ED re-make, who would you like to see Ash played by?
Bruce:We’re not that far along yet, so we’d better not go there. More news later.
Thank you very much, Mr Bruce Campbell
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