Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Bruce Campbell

Episode Date: April 16, 2019

Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness, The Evil Dead, Ash vs Evil Dead) talks about getting to a spiritual level and transcending self while acting, how with age he’s chosen pot over boner pills, and embracing the paranoia when he’s high. Bruce opens up about working with Sam Raimi and how much of a pioneer he was, how the rating system screwed him over, and why he won’t use live firearms on set. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yeah? You weren't around last week. I did the... Well, to be fair, you changed your mind like the night we were releasing it and decided to record something. Yeah. And there was no opportunity. There was.

I mean, you live... It's the first one I did without you. I felt a little naked. Yeah. Well, it's because you live so far. You've got your mansion up on Hollywood Hills. So far away. Rob, first of all, I was thinking about, you know, I did Dax's live podcast in front of 3,000 people.

And I thought it went so well that I think we should do a live podcast. And, you know, I like to ask everybody out there, our listeners, if we come to your city, would you damn well support us and come show up for a live podcast? I think we should try it. We need at least 10,000 people in each city. No, we don't. Here's the reality. If 40 people show up, I don't give a shit. It's fun.

We do it, and we keep building an audience. Yeah, let us know. Tweet us, Instagram us. Subscribe. I say this every week. Subscribe. If you like this, tell your friends. Get us more listeners.

We're very appreciative of that. Who do we got this week, Michael? Well, first of all, I want to tell everybody that I'm going to be in Dallas on May 3rd, Orlando, May 17th, Denver, May 31st, and then Australia in mid-June for conventions. So what you're saying is make sure you avoid those cities because Michael be in town. And then if people want to know, I'm going to be in Denver. The Tom Welling and I will be at these conventions. I'll kill you. Anyway, our guest today is one of my favorites, dude.

I don't know if you've seen this movie. It doesn't matter. This guy calls himself, I have a book right here. Look at this. If Chins Could Kill the Bruce Campbell book, Confessions of a B movie actor. This guy is so funny. He was stoned on the podcast. He was in Ash versus the Evil Dead.

Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Briscoe County, Jr. He's been in every Sam Ramie movie. he's a fantastic dynamic personality and a great story how his career started and how he's continued to work he's just a glorious human being so enjoy this one folks inside of you is brought to you by fat scooters i have two fat scooters that's phat every time rob i go out and i'm driving these things people stop me dude where did you get that is the coolest thing i swear to god people stop me all over. I got to have a fat scooter. If you want to check me riding a fat scooter, go on Instagram. There's a couple of videos on there. I have a blast with these things. They're

electric scooters built for adventure. They're stable. They're powerful. They're not these like these little rinky dink crappy. It's ridiculously fun. And you can customize these things. Pink colors. I mean, I like pink, but accessories. They have these Bluetooth power, like speakers. You have an iPhone holder. I've got everything on this thing. They customize the deck you know where you put your feet like a skateboard mine says inside of you yeah like a skateboard dude i have a fatty and it's just awesome you could customize all this stuff um there's a lot of scooters but nothing like fat scooters it's such a smooth ride unlike those little rental scooters like i talked about rob and you can get special financing so you don't have to pay for all of it

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It's my point of you You're listening to inside of you With Michael Rosenbaum Inside of You Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum Was not recorded in front of a live studio audience Are you comfortable? Yeah, not bad.

Are we rolling? I'm Buddhist style Yeah. You're rolling. You're Buddhist style? Yeah. You can move that mic wherever you want. Why did you decide to do a podcast?

A career wasn't going anywhere. And you just, you're a guy who likes to talk. No, you know what? I'll tell you what happened. Is this guy right here, Rob, he's my producer. He's very bright. He's 28. He's got a kid.

He's married. Hello. And I was doing stand-up comedy. And I had started stand-up and he was taking pictures. He goes, you got a face for radio, kid. Yeah, he said that. He actually just didn't say anything. I approached him.

And I said, hey, Paul. Why did you approach him? Who was he? I said, I'd love to get a picture because you're taking pictures of all the performers here. You with me here? I'm telling the story. Yeah, he's telling the story, right? He's taking pictures. He's taking pictures. And I go, I want, if this is the last time I do stand-up,

which I only had gone on stage like two or three times, I want pictures to say a proof. I thought you did a lot of stand-down. Well, I did last year, that, but when I met him, it was the very beginning of the stand-up, you see. So you went from taking pictures of random comedians to producing this podcast. Rob, is that how fast your assent was?

No, he was like taking pictures of big bands, like radio head and doing a lot I think so. I guess it sounds like he was demoted if he's taking pictures of me. I know where your mind goes, Bruce. Got it. Bruce Campbell, thanks for allowing me to be inside of you this evening. I feel like you're getting into me. Already? You're getting into me. Oh, we just, we haven't scratched a service. You're getting to me. I know that. I don't know. That's good. Uh, anyway, so look, long story boring. This guy took some pictures. I wanted a picture. Next thing I goes, you should have a website. And I go, I don't need a website. He goes, no, you need a website. He's a good seller.

He said, what do you know? You take pictures. Right. So I paid him a lot of money to do a website. I liked it. Anyway, then he says you should do a podcast. It grew from that. And it ruined a podcast. I don't know. But yeah, I've always wanted to do one. Everyone's doing one.

It's next thing you know, we're doing it. And it's, uh, I'm having fun doing it. It's easy. And actors love to spew all the bullshit about their miserable lives. Well, this is therapy for me. And you push a button for an actor, right? I mean, for an actor to come on a show with an actor-friendly zone. Oh, my God.

You must tell them to shut up after a while. Okay. Thanks a lot for coming on our show. Yes. Queue the music. No. I, you know, what's funny is I say this every episode, it becomes therapy for me, Bruce. Why?

Because I need therapy. Because you can find out that other people have miserable experiences. Yes, I like to know that other people are fucked up, too. You know what's awesome? What? Read books about actors. I do. I read your first book.

And then the second new one is what? Further confessions of a B-movie actor. Of a B-movie actor. And 15 years from now will be the final confessions. It's going to be a trilogy. Really? Yep. Me and Star Wars.

We do trilogies. Well, you know, what's funny is I was just talking to my buddy Troy, who's like, does extra work in Vancouver. And he said he came up to you at a convention and he said, that book really changed my life. And you go, why? Why did it change? Because I listen to you about, make your own movies, do your own thing. You know, when you and Sam Ramey were out in the middle of nowhere, you weren't anywhere near Hollywood. You learn from reading these books.

It's not, okay, yeah, I'm randomly interested in, let's say, Sammy Davis Jr.'s career. So I'll read it. But there's a lot of takeaways. from these books that are great. I already bought the fucking thing, Bruce. I think it's amazing. No, but here's the thing. I don't care if people buy my book.

I'm going to continue to buy actors' books because I keep learning. Sammy Davis Jr., he writes a book. Stop the world, I want to get off, whatever the name of that book was. So he writes it, very successful. And he goes, I've got more stuff to say. But he was too busy.

He was book, book, book, book. I was working. And he's like, I'm never going to write another book unless I get someone to help me write this book. So he found a married couple that were huge fans of his. Were they writers? Yeah. And knew everything about him.

And he would go to them and go, I want to talk a little more about this, about that, you know, and they would write it. And then they would submit it to him and he'd just make notes. Because he said, if I do it that way, no, I'm not writing every single little tiny word. But the book is still coming out.

so it's either no book or I get help and he goes I'd rather have another book because there's shit that I want to say so I had this book floating around I'm like am I ever going to get to this to writing a sequel to that first book first chance book and I went I'm going to learn from Sammy Davis Jr.

You got somebody else to help you. A page right out of his book. I've got a Rob Craig Sandborn he's been with me now for 20 years he does anywhere from graphics, websites he does every internet every all social media graphics and shit like that he can kind of do anything so i said to him how about this let me come up to portland where he lives and i love portland it's like twist my arm

to go to portland right we're going to sit for a week and we're going to get a digital recorder and we're going to i'm going to tell you every story in that book and we're going to you're going to ask questions like a cub reporter and we'll get the story out just by conversation then so he took that he took a week of ramblings He transcribed the whole thing. How long did it take him? Months, months. Months.

Yeah. And then he would do the first pass on chapters. And then I would take it and go, that's not how I would do it. I would do it this way. And I could mercilessly edit because editing is easy. Did he hate you for a while? It doesn't matter. That was the deal that we made.

That was the job. Is that you're like a co-writer. And your job is to bash this into shape. and then I'm going to polish that turd at the very end. Right. So that's how we did it. And I'm like, well, it's either, it's not every single word, but it's actually close because the last pass, I could just make it how I would do it.

How many pages is the new book? I don't know, three, three something. You always got to get a certain page count. What does a guy get paid to help you write a book? What percentage? Because Rob gets 20% of whatever this podcast makes. I'm throwing them 10 for a limited amount. 10%?

Yeah. 10% of what it makes. I'm the studio. After cost. You're the studio. So guess what? I've had to give a him accounting that says, here's how much I paid you for these three years to prep this book. So I got to get that back first.

Right. And I just did a tour where it's all out of my pocket for show. I got to get that back first. I just did the audio book. I paid for it. So we now have a number that has to be recouped before he gets anything. Really? But I fully expect him to get some dough.

Do you think we got the number eight, baby? Do you think number eight on the New York? times best selling. That's amazing. Not bad. They are good. You know, the one book I read, I'm sure the second one, it's just a continuation. It's the Sammy Davis Jr. of books. It is. It is. So I get it. If this half as good as the first one, I mean, it's going to be, it's a great read. Writing books is really cool, though. There's no chefs. You make a movie? Yeah. Oh, baby. There are lots of people with opinions. You, I, I wonder sometimes you've done so much work. But I could tell they're sort of like, Like, I wouldn't say animosity. I would. I would say animosity. These are your words, sir. But I would say that there's something about you that you love certain aspects and you hate.

Tell me what you love. Of the business? Tell me what you love about the business and then what you hate. What I love about the business is I'm not digging ditches. Of course. I'm playing guys who dig ditches. Sure. I play soldiers, but I don't get shot at.

I like make believe you know how if sports because you're a big sports lover I find it amazing that like in Olympics I've seen a couple of the Olympic amazing events and you go that's when the height of physicality

equals spiritual sports can become metaphysical they can take you to the next realm and you'll go that guy made that shot because something else was powering him he was using the force you know Jordan had to have the force in him for some of those shots right godlike game win yeah transcendent but he's still doing something that's just physical what I like about our business for all the foibles all the tedium all the letdowns good words

tedium all the hassle all the repetition is sometimes during that take after take I'll go that was spiritual. Give me an example of a time that comes right to mind that you go, wow, I went spiritual. Was it like Boba Hotep? No, the last season of Ash versus Evil Dead. Really? The character Ash gets to the end of his rope. Because he's just human. He's not a superhero. He has no super spy skills. He's not from another planet. Doesn't have a spandex suit. He's lucky. He can't fly. He's not even lucky. He's an idiot. Guy can't even shoot a gun. We have a scene where he wants out he's like fuck that this wasn't my plan i he's basically explaining he's like going broke being a hero that you know how do i i don't even have a job so we did we we did a couple of takes

and i just asked the director for i just said give me one more while we're because we're kind of getting up we're why did you want one more because i knew we were getting up to speed like you were feeling you had something left in the tank keep rolling yeah no we're not there yet we're not there yet. And so we did the one other take and by the end of it, we were both laughing because we're like, that's it. That's the one. And they'll keep whatever they keep of it. But me and the director both knew that it was worth doing. And sometimes an actor will ask for another take and you go, like as a director, I've had that. I directed a VIP episode with Pamela Anderson. I directed two of those. You did it. You made it. It looks great on a resume, man, VIP. You can get the big shows after

that but there was another actor there was an actor on that show who was actually a perfectly good actor he did a a really good solid take the camera shit was perfect everything was perfect he goes man i got to have one more i said you're not going to be able you're not it's not it's not it's not going to be better i'm an actor i'm telling you right now yeah uh what did you think you would want to do differently he goes no i got i got i got you know more in the tank that sort of thing And I went, I'm telling you objectively, you don't need to do it. You really want to? We'll roll.

But you'll be halfway through the take, and you're going to stop and look at me and go, yeah, you're right. So we did another take. We did another full take. I was completely fucking right. Because you jinxed it. You shouldn't have said anything. Well, he shouldn't have messed with what was good. And plus, I'm the director.

We still use the other take anyway. That's true. He ain't in the editing room. You have some clout with VIP. Well, oh, boy. But you know, wait a minute. You said, what I thought you were going to say when you're talking about Jordan, and it's that spiritual, metaphysical thing. Yeah. But I thought you were going to say, I had this take where I forgot who Bruce Campbell was. I was ash. It was at a body.

Right. No, you don't see the camera anymore. That's a rare thing that does happen. It does happen. Yeah. I've had it. I think it happens in a comedy. Look, you know from clubs, you get an audience going and you're riding a wave. You are. You're speedballing. Yeah. That's why you stay in entertainment. You're being dragged down. down by the weight of your performance, but you're buoyed by the response. So you're speedballing. Have you ever sped ball? Speedball? I haven't.

I don't like to be pulled in two different direction. Are you a control freak? No, not really. Do you drink? You drink. I drink alcohol. But you've never done drugs. I do, I smoke marijuana.

Yes, I smoked with you. But that's not really drug. It's not. It's the only medicine in my cabinet. Most fuckers my age have four, they got four prescriptions. You got your age. I'm a while younger than you and I have all this shit in my fucking thing. They got, they got, they got, they got,

Boner pills. I don't know. Guys my age. Maybe. Boner pills, they got, usually a weird, everyone's got this, some cholesterol shit. Nope, don't have that. You got a little problems in your life. Well, better get crack open that, Zachs.

I mean, oh, my God. Are you telling me to start smoking more pot? I think, you know, you got to do what you got to do. What's so awesome is my little crappy town now. I went fishing last year. We cut up the Oregon Coast, which is unbelievably gorgeous. Through every crappy town, there was a green. cross sign.

I'm like, well, you smoke in every town? I bought it in every town. Because I want to go see what is that Cous Bay dispensary. What does it look like? And who's running it? And what are they like?

And what's awesome about pot shops? Liquor stores are still a little bit like porn. Not a lot of eye contact. I'm just going to get my bottle and shove it in a bag and I'm just going to go to my truck and go home and drink my goddamn bourbon. I don't really want to talk too much about it.

so they get in there and go into a pot shop hey what's going on there man and and you go what do you got today what's cool oh we just got this great stuff and they describe it like wine oh it's got this great grassy beginning and a nice vanilla finish it's like it's a passion it is and they're experts so every state is weird how they treat you some states treat you like a child in some areas and some treat you like adult like in Oregon they treat you like a child with alcohol, you've got to go to a state liquor store. And it says liquor store. You don't go to the local party store and get it. You can't get at a supermarket either. You can get beer and wine. Right. So Oregon treats you like a child. You must be regulated with your alcohol

consumption. But buy all the weed you want. Right. California now just finally went, of course, you know, recreational, but you can buy liquor at, you know, sewing shops at California. They don't, they don't care. So it's funny what states care about. Yeah, let me ask you, do you remember how we met? A convention? No, no, I think we met, we did a pilot together. Oh, well, of course.

That's how we cemented our relationship. We did, and I remember. Mission control. Mission control. Didn't happen. You know, it was sad because I got fired from it. Well, I wouldn't say fired. What would you call it?

Reshot. No, they didn't reshoot me. Oh, they never reshot? They never even got around to it. No, they let me go. They picked it up for five because they were going to change the character, and then they never picked it up. Right. And I remember you were really kind.

Ah, don't worry about it. I wasn't too worried. TV is, come on, man. That's, you're throwing shit up on the wall all the time. I've learned a while ago. Can't take it that seriously. I told someone this the other day. I'm flying in Rupert Burdox jet.

Jesus. It's James. It's a James Bond Jet. It's gold-plated, you know, because he's, I'm doing the Adventures of Briscoe County Jr. That's right. And I'm going to go with a bunch of actors from other Fox shows to Monroe, Louisiana, and meet Terry Bradshaw down there. And we're going to get this former CBS affiliate that switched to Fox, and we're going to throw a party for him and make a big deal of these networks that are switching to Fox, switching to Fox. So he wanted, Rupert wanted all of these people from shows. So I flew down there as a cowboy in the dumb outfit and everything, put on a show, big celebration. They canceled our show three days later. Are you serious? Yeah, so you can't.

How can, if I was, if I got personally offended by that, I would go, those guys were assholes for doing that when they knew. The thing is they didn't even know. No. You know, these guys are in hotel rooms with magnetic boards going, CBS, oh my God. They got Dr. Giggles. This is on at 10. Oh, oh.

then let's put mercy meat across from it at whatever it is and it's all you know it's they hire these marketing guys who don't even know anything they're tap dancing as fast as they can but you took me he said we're going for a bike ride let's go and we went to a bike ride and you I brought I think I borrowed one of your bikes I didn't even have a bike at the time I went to your house you were getting ready you I met your son and then you took me for a bike ride where did you take me the reservoir I think it was a subpova to basin so pulva to basin and we smoked some grass. Yeah, man. Throughout the whole day. Yeah. So, I never had

ridden a bike while stoned. Oh, that's the best. It was interesting. Oh, you're Floody McGee. I liked it. I was floating McGee. And we ended... That's the music you hear after that. We ended up on the 18th hole of a golf course without golfing and we took a shot of tequila to end our day. Yeah, at the

crappy clubhouse. At the crappy clubhouse. Nailed it. And it was awesome. I do the same thing in Oregon. You still do all those things? We have a green. We have the... It's the bare park green belt greenway and it runs for 20 miles it parallels the five freeway it's a dedicated bike path and how often do you do it oh whenever i can i just gone i just disappear see you riding to medford today on my electric oh you know electric see you got lazy on me before we

were really peddling the cardio was going up oh yeah yeah yeah what happened but an electric bike changes your life because you go i'm going to ride 20 miles to medford because i can because we have this one path the bear bear creek park it goes downhill because it's following a river and all rivers flow away from mountains so you're going downhill in one direction but then i got to get all the way back i'm like screw that i'm tired i already did the pedaling and i'm too stone but the bike now that i get the good kind is pedal assist because then you're still part part of the program. The bike will not do it for you. I thought the pot was called pedal assist. That's a pretty good name. Right? Pedal assist. I'm still trying to brand screaming

brain though. I'm working on that. Yeah, an Oregon, Oregon weed, screaming brain. But yeah, bicycles are good. Electric bikes are good. Have you ever been stoned on set, on a movie? Pretty rarely. I actually, I'm, I'm 2% old school about that of getting, getting liquored up while I work or smoking, smoking reaper. Can you recall a moment where you said, I got this scene, I know it in the back of my head, I'm going to get stoned?

And it didn't go well? I'm only asking this because I think I read it. The very first time I shot stoned, the first evil dead. We went down there, 1979, Sam was 20, I'm 21. I had never smoked.

You're still in college. We didn't go to college, but... You didn't go to college. But we were college age. Right. I had never smoked it before. So here we are in Tennessee,

rural Tennessee. We knew that we knew they had it. So our local, guy, Gary Holt, he was our local contact, Gary Holt. You need some Mary Jay. We said, hey, man, where's that good Tennessee shit, man? So he goes, okay, I'll get you some. And he got us moonshine, too.

But so we thought that we had a scene in the movie where we're sitting around a camp, this fire, listening to a scary tape recorder, and passing a joint around. So we had all heard the story of Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson, Smoke, supposed to like 50 joints in the course of. this one scene around a campfire all real weed because they wanted jack to give the crazy performance which of course he got you know nominated per an academy fucking award lines during that scene i think he made them all up but you know so we thought let's do the same thing maybe we'll get some good improv we'll smoke some real weed and so they rolled it up i'd never done it before

we get halfway through the scene what scene are you shooting we're shooting a scene of sitting around a tape recorder playing it back while this is... Nom across. All that... Yeah. Ta'ra. Yeah. And a storm is going outside, and it was the release of the evil demons.

Oh, yeah. So it's supposed to be creepy and weird. And we're supposed to get creeped out because we're stoned. But halfway through shooting it, I left the planet. I... Things became six-channel stereo. Did your heart start racing? Were you nervous?

It wasn't even that. It wasn't the nervous. I became removed from my body, and I hovered about the same. and everything was in six-channel stereo and I was trying to decipher Sam's voice from all the other voices. I just, I wanted to listen to how he was directing me. And for some reason, I heard everybody else's voice

at the same time. So it was a very difficult process. And then, you know, you start, the early days of weed are time jump cuts. Right. Like two minutes later, you're putting peanut butter on your matzah in the kitchen. And you go, fuck, how did I get here?

I love how you went to Mata. Mata. That was our, go to because Sam He's a Jew. I'm a Jew. Every dinner at Sam's was Mata and eggs.

Mata was something we were forced to eat as children. I don't know what people just had to lie in around their house. I fark and love Motsa. I'll put anything on it. It's okay. I like it in my older age, yeah. Yeah.

So the time jump cuts would happen. And so there was a time jump cut and we were all on the front porch. And I could hear the other crew members going, Sam, we don't think this is working. know, we think we're wasting the time. It sounds like, yeah, yeah, they got two stoned.

So I was like, and I felt really bad. I was so stone, but I went, I can do it. So I think I tried to convince them of like, let me do it. If you watch that scene, is it? Oh, there's four seconds of it. There's a, there's a wide shot we used 10 feet of there. Because you couldn't use much more. It was useless.

I couldn't open my eyes during the scene. I mean, I was a little slit eyes, and I started to lean over to one side. I would just slowly disappearing out of the shot. They're like, we can't, we can't use that. Oh my God. So, yeah. That was it for you. Yeah.

Then do it again. Not really, no. No. Right. If you focus on your work, it's hard enough. It is. I don't need the extra. You don't need the paranoia?

No. It's so much better to embrace the paranoia. Where you walk into a restaurant and you go, nobody's even looking at me. I'm invisible as a matter of, fact. Do you do this? Oh, absolutely. The more stoned I am, the more confident I get that there's absolutely nothing wrong. And I'll make eye contact that normally I wouldn't even make because I'm like, if I was stoned, I wouldn't make eye contact. So I'm going to talk to that

waitress and I'm going to go, yes, I'd like two eggs or reason. And I'd be very clear about what I would like as though I order it every day. And then when she comes back with it, I go, did I order that? Because I'd forgotten that I ordered that. But, you know, that's okay. It doesn't hurt the brain at all. Oh my God. You know where I was. I like that. Embrace the paranoia. Play through the pain. Do you think you could today if you got stone? Do you think I could play through it? Like if I had to actually work stone? Yeah. We smoke enough pot now that I think you could probably do it. Oh, I could. I think you could I don't think I could. Well, interviews. You get stoned in interviews. Oh, there's nothing better

Is it fun? Oh. Are you worried about what you're going to say? No. Are you stoned right now, by the way? A little bit. Before an interview is the perfect time because then, what you do is while you're listening to the same question over and over again, I can hear the guy's cat purring on the other end of the line. And so that becomes the interest of the interview. You go, I bet he's got it on his lap.

So you start to have a whole separate narrative. So you're not, it's not upset about all the time they take out of my life to promote this show. I'm like, it really poses lots of interesting questions. Rob, how do you feel about this interview so far? with Bruce Campbell. I feel great. That's why they have editing.

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Go to quince.com slash inside of you for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash inside of you. Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash inside of you. Bruce, what was it like being Bruce Campbell as a child? were you always kind of funny sarcastic up to no good um i never really got in any serious trouble it was pretty industrious is what it was we were industrious little shits came from suburban

detroit most of the people we knew at some point worked for the for you know ford chevy chrysler you work for uh one of the ford families uh you know my buddy his father was a ford engineer my dad was an ad man and their client was Chevrolet so we owned chevies because you that's what you were brand loyal i think we understood the concept of working and building things so we built uh multiple tree forts um that were industrious we had a my brother is six years older and i have my other brother's one year older so i was the youngest of three so we could use their know-how and my oldest brother ability to like actually build stuff and like saw shit so we built a tank in our backyard a full almost a full

scale tank made out of what made out of plywood that we stole from all the houses that were being developed in our neighborhood and this is before motion detectors the big bad dogs when i was a kid was a was a german shepherd shadow there was one bad dog in the whole neighborhood and there's no leashes and so they would always attack this other dog frisky but you know it was life was simple it was freewheeling. You could cut through everybody's yard, and then I'll wave at you out the back. That's what we did.

We just cut through yards. Cut right through yards. Stop. Drink out of garden hoses. Oh, yeah, why not? But you got to let them run because otherwise if they've been sitting in the sun, they're all rubbery and hot.

But the Lawrence has had a trampoline. We would stop and bounce on somebody else's trampoline, and they would wave out the window and let us do it. And the idea of bouncing on the trampoline at that time was to hurt the guy that you were bouncing with. You wanted them to get off the tramp. You'd bounce them off the tramp. Otherwise, you didn't win.

Right, right. We were breaking springs, and we'd come back. We'd show them we bought a new spring. Wave it to them through the window. And there was no liability issues. There's swimming in other people's pools. Did your parents, were they very supportive of you? They let you just do what you want.

Yeah, we were a free-range, totally free-range kids. We had a bell. My mom had, we literally had a bell-free and a bell at the end of our ranch house that was on top of the garage. And she's like, that's your distance. You must be able to hear the bell. because I'm going to ring the bell when it's time And you better be home You better be coming home

Would you ever not? I didn't hear the bell, Mom No, no, no. You couldn't pull that Because then you lost your freedom. The only way to maintain your freedom was to be diligent about that Because then she went, I trust you.

If your mother stops trusting you, you're fucked. Even if you're doing, seriously, even if you're doing not bad stuff, if you're unreliable because they want to know that their kid will not die randomly because they're stupid. They want to know that you develop some responsibility. So we'd be playing softball, and it would be sort of a challenge of who could hear it.

Because, you know, my older brother, Don, he's one year old, and we competed in everything. We're like, that's the bell. No, it isn't. Yeah, it is. Listen. Yeah, it is. Take off on our bikes and we'd race home. But there were no restrictions that whenever, that was our one perimeter pre-self-self

Were you a jokester? Were you the one that was always funny? Like, Bruce is going to say something funny. Here he goes. Or were you serious? It was a slow development. I was not serious. Really?

It was a slow development. It was a slow development. Because I watch you as, what year did you do Evil Dead? 1979. And how old were you? 21. 21. And I remember, I specifically remember saying this.

Like Jim Carrey, you were doing the shit he was doing before Jim Carrey. Like in Evil Dead, the physical comedy and the chops and the good looking. I just remember saying this guy is a genius. Well, the half of the reason we're going back to do Ash versus Evil Dead is so I can fix Ash, now that I have experience. I'm best known for the role where I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I'm playing Ash. I'm 21. How do you be an actor? Do you try and create a persona? You didn't know how to be an actor. You've never done anything.

Oh, I did local community theater in a bunch of Super 8 movies, but that's it. I mean, none of us had any real experience. So what were you doing in high school? Doing plays. So you were doing plays? Plays and Super 8 movies. Okay, so you were an actor. Yeah, it was an actor. Right, but you hadn't had any... But this was a feature film.

I'm like, well, I got to do this differently now. This is a motion picture. Did you feel the nerves? No, but you can watch as the movie goes, everybody gets better. Because we shot almost in sequence. In the beginning, it's very stiff. Hey, Linda, ha-ha, let's... Hey, here's a necklace I made for you.

How about that? It was bad actors, inexperienced actors saying bad dialogue is really what it was. Do you remember thinking this is it? This is like... No, no, we were not. We were just concerned. we did horror because we didn't want to lose investors money. We had all our stuff with slapstick before.

Sam Ramey loved the Marks brothers. Another guy that we wrote with Scott Spiegel. He was a huge Three Stooges fan. We called Larry at the old folks home. Larry Fine from the Three Stooges. We talked to him in like 1974. Wow. We called him.

We had to figure out the time difference from Michigan to California. And his nurse was Mrs. Ross. You'd call about 11 in the morning, which was like 1 o'clock, you know, two for us. Mrs. Ross, can we talk to Larry? No way. Hold on, I'll check and see. Hello.

Help us to find. Hello. Come on. Are you serious? Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah, Larry, fine. Did you ever visit him or see him or meet him or just the phone?

No, just on the phone, which was impressive enough. So our influence was always comedy, but we felt very obliged just if we raised money from like guys, hard cash from a hardcore businessman, you better have a plan. So we thought, let's do horror. You can have nobody. Can't lose with that. Look at all the classic horror movies of the 70s. Halloween.

Jamie Lee Curtis, she was nobody. Right. She was nobody. A lot of those movies you did. Texas Jansom Massacre. Gunner Hanson, nobody. Still to this day, I don't understand. When I see a trailer for a horror movie, I think you don't need anyone.

Anything or anything. Anything. You just have a good story with good actors and you got it. What is? Always need stars. Always need stars. Oh, hostile. You know, you just put a guy's dick in a vice for an hour.

You're done. It's two guys. It's a guy in a vice. That's all you need. It's true. But so we, that's what sort of left us into sort of taking a weird detour into horror. So much later in the game, we would inject the horror back, the comedy back into it. Evil Dead One is a melodrama.

And it's, it's, we can't bury, we got to bury Shelley. We can't bury Shelley. she's a friend of ours. I mean, just inane conversations. But played straight. Everyone talks about how campy it is. It ain't campy. It's campy because we're failing quite often.

That's, you know, for you to be able to divulge that, you could have easily played into it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, we know it was campy. Oh, sure. No, we did not. So you were offended by this? I was not offended, but if they like it, they like it.

Then I don't give a shit. But what saved the movie was a lot of Sam Ramey's wacky visuals. and he really was ahead of the curve. The movie doesn't really look like other horror movies visually. How did you know that he was that good? Sam was right from the start. He was weirdo number one. What year was this?

Junior high school I saw him the first time. West Maple Junior High School. I'm walking down the hallway. There's this guy dressed like Sherlock Holmes sitting on the floor, the middle of the fucking hallway, playing with dolls. I was like, all right, let's go around that guy. turned out to be Sam Ramey and I busted him on it later

he goes I go you were that guy playing with dolls in the middle of the hallway weren't you I was making a movie I'm like

there were no cameras around you were just being a fucking weirdo dressed like Sherlock Holmes with the magnifying glass oh how very interesting he walked up to people and like shove it in their face so I avoided him

I avoided him didn't see him again until 11th grade I'm taking typing class and I'm like how the fuck does anybody wind up on typing class who who winds up in these classes i took one i didn't pick typing they assigned it to me randomly i'm like and i never gone to counselors before i i didn't even know

i was very straight laced i didn't even know that you could like drop classes i thought you take the classes they give you and shove it at school it's not supposed to be fun right i went to the counselor i went because i sat in that typing going oh my god i looked around everyone knew how to type i'm like how do they know how to type isn't that why you take the class i felt like the loser number one peck peck peck peck peck peck the counselor goes yeah you can drop the class i'm like oh my god what do you got i got uh no i got radio speech and went radio speech wait wait stop right there what the hell's radio speech learn how to be a dj oh oh yeah i took that spinning and grinning pounds of sound stacks of wax dude grease this was still this was

the wax turntables where you know you're back winding them and and in the cue mode and and i went I'll take it. So Sam Ramey was in that class. And so we started doing morning announcements together. And that's how we got in the plays. I learned a very interesting political lesson in high school. I audition in 10th grade for the plays. I'm like, fuck you, man. I'm an actor. I'm going to be an actor. I'll have to do is audition. I got this. Audition for like three plays in 10th grade. Nothing, nothing, nothing. They posted up on the, you know, the door of the drama class. I'm like, you've got to be fucking kidding me because I know I nailed that audition.

Were you popular? There wasn't so much that. I'm like, I'm as good as that other kid who can't even stand straight when he delivers his lines. The guy can't get his hands out of his pockets. I'm better than that guy. And so nothing. But then I realize it's because the guy,

Jim Mall, who is he ran, he was the drama teacher. If you didn't have his class, you weren't getting in his plays because he directed all the plays. Oh, there you go. It's already pulling. political. It's already politics.

Bang. Yeah. The star, the stardust in my eyes is already starting to drop away. By the way, who was a guy with the hands in the pants? I'll remember his name. He was a tall guy who would bounce. He would bounce back and forth every time he would talk. And he would never cut his hair in the 1970s. You know, hair was down to your shoulders. But I'm playing a newspaper reporter from the 40s. So he would just slick his long hair back. And you go, John Page was his name. John Page. Yeah. So John, I got. your number buddy fuck you john fuck you john who got that part can't even still stand still so

it's a teacher got into john to jim mall's class in in like flint i was in every play with sam for 11th grade and sam acted in these plays he did sam was the funniest mother scratcher i still is to this day crazy crazy humor crazy over the top and what would you guys do for fun like what movies were you watching no we just we just we shot we did super eight movies we never got in trouble on weekends because we were like we got to make we're going to shoot that uh the reshoots from its murder and then six months to live we have to do some more put it we got we got very industrial i think we did about 50 of these do you think those were the best times of your life did you have the most fun well there weren't the job descriptions because the the sometimes disheartening thing is

when you go up into the business and you get into the world of unions now everybody has a very specific job that they do. And there's a lot less of the, how about this or how about that, there's not as much spitballing once you get up into the union levels. And I just thought that was always a little weird. You know, I was a production assistant

for a couple of years before we made Evil Dead, and I'd work on these union shoots and commercials in Detroit. And I didn't know, I'd go to grab a cable and this big, burly guy would go, Can't do that. I got that, buddy. I got that, buddy.

But then I realized, If you worked a 14-hour day at the end of the day, they'd let you carry those. I go, need help of that dolly track? Yeah, I do, bud. Thanks a lot, man. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. You know, that's the only thing that I miss a little bit about it is the sort of

spitballing where the lines were not is finally drawn of who did what. You know, everyone's little rice bowl has become very defined. I think I was thinking more like pressure. When you're on a movie set with Sam Ramey and all these people and you're just... Yeah, when you're spending money, it's... it gets less fun. You know, these bean counters who run these studios, a lot of these guys should be fired

because they're actually really lousy with money. They love to pride themselves in thinking that they are the smartest guys in the room. Isn't that their schick? I'm a Joe businessman. I'm an excellent businessman. I'm tough, smart. I'm going to run a studio.

Well, A, these guys, half of them don't even like movies. And if you don't like movie, you're not going to try and understand how to make them. So most of them don't even know, like on a film set, they wouldn't know what to say to anybody. You can tell anyone who's not a crew member or an actor, when they show up on a set,

you can smell them. They smell agents. You can smell them a block before they get there. And they come on the set and they're in suits and ties, and they're the most uncomfortable looking people. Yes, always. Hands and pockets, nervously shifting. Don't know where to stand either. Oh, excuse me.

Oh, sorry. Oh, hey, watch it, buddy. Hey, don't stand there. They're all getting shued out of it. It's absolutely true. So these are the guys. who are running the industry and a friend of mine supplied walkie-talkies on Batman versus Superman that they shot in- supplied walkie-talkies walkie-talkies walkie-talkie rentals okay Batman versus Superman Pontiac Michigan a couple years ago

for the second unit the second unit needed 200 walkie-talkies this is guys pulling guys on wires and blowing shit up you need 200 walkie-talkies and cell phones and iPads right that are all program for production all the numbers are all inputted great that's a lot of walkie-talkies it shows you the waste the incredible waste i want to sneak in i'm going to disguise myself as a guy hi i'm from harvard business school i'd like to try an economic experiment with paramount pictures would that be all right sir well what do you want to do i'd like to take one of your two hundred million movies and make $102 million

movies. 50 of them will suck. 25 of them will be mediocre. 10 will be good and two of them are going to be classics that will pay for all the rest of them. That's so true. Why would you put all your

eggs in one basket? And as a result, I've seen this happen, the screening process and reshoots. I follow actors randomly, like Hugh Jackman. I don't know why. I just follow Hugh Jackman on Twitter. Seems to have a fun kind of life. And like he, and he would tweet, he literally, he would tweet,

we'll see if this is the last reshoot for, um, Wolverine. Wolverine. And he's like, bleary-eyed a shot of him in the back of some van at six o'clock in the morning at some God-forsaken location. Well, we'll see if this is the last reshoot. The reshooting. The reshoots are, drives me insane. I'm of the opinion that, you know what, dude?

You had your shot. So now they're going to test it with unemployed people in Pasadena at a mall. And you're the fucking expert. It's true they do. You're the expert. You got nothing to do. So I'm going to listen to you of like, act three dragged a little bit or, you know, I wouldn't do that. Why is that guy so mean to her, you know?

He's not that likable. I watched, hey, there's a screening in Pasadena for the movie Darkman. I had just gotten divorced I was broke and Sam took pity on me and said come on and work in the sound department because you knew I could kind of edit and do stuff so I was working in the sound department and we went to one of these screenings

so you screen it for 200 people in your multiplex and then they keep a group of like 20 or 30 who have agreed to stay for a focus group and they get these guys who are like oh what would they be, psychiatrists okay we'd like to ask some questions where we'd like to find out a little more about what you thought so one of the questions on the questionnaire was which scene in the movie did you like the most

and why and another one was which scene did you like the least and why and one of the responses came back the scene with the naked guy on the money Okay. So in context, that's out of context. In context, it's Darkman. Dark man played by Liam Neeson. He's dating Fran McDormann. He gets blown up in a lab experiment. We think he's dead. She's going to try and move on with the life. She meets a very suave businessman, Colin Freels. He's very charming and good-looking, and he's a rich developer. And I'll show you the world, baby. So she starts to get wooed by him. this guy and you go okay i guess she'll try and put her pieces of her life meanwhile dark man is living in caves and trying to put his life back together so the developer goes home to his very nice apartment and walks out of the room and he's obviously just taking a shower he's all glistening and he's got a towel wrapped around his waist gets to the end of his bed and he opens a box and this gold shimmer falls across his face and you look in the box it's all these gold

coins. He takes his coins and he pours them out onto the bed. Covers the whole bed in gold Krugurans. The camera cuts to behind, he drops his towel, buck-ass naked. He dives onto the bed and starts basically making love to the money.

He's just, he's writhing in the money and X-60. Cut to the next day, he's in his office, completely composed, and Fran McDormon comes to visit him. And the way it works is you go, fuck, that guy's a sicko. and you're warning the audience is like no no no right you've given them some really dirty secret

information on this guy like you know he kills little animals or whatever in testing everyone went oh i'm so uncomfortable and so is the guy naked guy with the money why because it made me feel uncomfortable so instead of the studio saying to sam ramey you nailed it everyone who saw that scene and made him really uncomfortable so they don't want fran mcdorman to wind up with that developer he's a creep that's the first scene they cut out and i had told this executive at universal i told him repeatedly how it was my i'm so glad sam had the balls to shoot that scene it's my favorite scene in the movie and after that testing we're walking back through the parking lot the executive goes bruce i'll give you i'll give you a copy of that scene because it ain't going

in the movie i'm like you're a pussy you're a pussy that's the best scene in the movie you just cut the best thing in the movie hope you're happy and that happens a lot because you cut the edges off because of the money. What if one little Billy in Iowa doesn't like the movie? So, God forbid, your movies are. You can make 10, 20 million more if it's PG-13.

And they're trying to out-do each other. And the ratings thing is a big... Well, the whole of rotten tomatoes, don't get me started on that. But even beyond that, just the ratings thing, the ratings board, how you get a rating, how you get ratings and why you get ratings are ridiculous.

And they're not standardized. You see half-breast, you see a mole on a penis. It's... Yeah, we're very confused in this country. The First Evil Dead had no rating. We did not submit it to the ratings board. Because, you know, you don't have to. You don't.

No. But some radio stations will go, sorry, there's no rating. I don't know this might be a snuff movie. And some newspapers and TV stations will not take the ad. Because the ratings give them a bogus comfort. So if you don't have a rating So the first two Evil Dead movies were unrated And so Army of Darkness rolls along the third one

Universal makes it It's now a studio movie We're spending more Contractually we have to deliver in our rating Oh when they saw that it was us Oh the first two movies You didn't seem to bother going through the ratings board Oh now you need a rating do you

They gave Army of Darkness That has talking skeletons okay a 12 year old would not be afraid of this movie they gave it an NC 17 come on so we called them on it we're like bullshit tell us what to cut they said it's the cumulative effect we're like fuck you opening five minutes of good fellas they're driving along thump thump thump hey what's that fucking noise they stop they open up the trunk as a guy bound horribly against his will in the trunk and he's already they tried to kill him already he's still alive for some miraculous reason

Joe Pesci takes a knife. Hey, he stabs him. Fifteen times. That's torture. R-rated. Army of Darkness, you lap a head off, dust comes out. NC17. How much better would Army of Darkness have done if it wasn't an R rating? Exponentially better. It wouldn't have done any better because

they should have called it Evil Dead 3. Yeah, why didn't they do that? Because Universal, they don't think about stuff like that. It's not just them. It's a studio mentality. These two little movies, Devil Dead. We don't know. Now, we got to call it something completely different so that, God forbid, the original fans would know what it is. We were going to call it the medieval dead. That's not bad. Yeah. Because that's what it was. Yeah, hello. So anyway, I don't think

of ratings would have mattered to damn. You know, very few people do a movie, their first film, and it becomes a cult movie, and then gives them an incredible career after that. Well, an incredible genre career, sure. What do you mean, a genre career? It puts you You know, actors wherever we wind up You'd had only limited control over what you've done in the past I have only had limited control You see an opportunity, you take it

That one first movie took off over time We sold it around the world But so it's easy to work in horror movies So I did, you know, maniac cop You know, no shortage of those But I was perfectly fine with it Because it kept my feet wet It got me into the

It got me completely into the business business. And it's only later where you go, let's try some other stuff here. I'm an actor, not just like a guy with a chainsaw. When was that moment where you're like, you know what, I don't, I don't want to do something different. I want to do something. Probably I've moved to Los Angeles from Michigan. And so it was time to get out and get, get an agent and see what you could get. So I got Knott's Landing was my first TV gig. And it was like, it was the last you should have left right after that. You made it. You made it. No, no. I thought it was really weird. I thought I auditioned for it. It was the first thing I auditioned with my brand new agent and I got it. It was two lines. I was playing Michael York's assistant. I just had to look good in a suit. Okay. I could do that. I can do that. So I show up to shoot it and I had just come from Evil Dead 2, directed by Sam who was like, you know, 15 takes, 20 takes, incredibly physical. lots of great camarader we'd run back look at playback together we'd kind of

I love that approved takes together he was really he's he was really great it was like your best play pal of like fuck that was crazy wait let's try let me let's do one more thing how fun is that I miss that yeah that doesn't happen it's rare because it's rare to have a director like that and guys like Sam Ramee are one in 100,000 most guys will go through the motions men and women we got a lot of good directors out there, but they're only good. You know, Sam is so far ahead of the curve. You know, I'm not sure how we got on this particular tangent, but...

When you're Notts Landing. Right, so I go from Evil Dead 2, this really good experience. It was one of the best of the Evil Dead shoots, kind of, you know, and it made money, and it was good. I went to get on the set of Knott's Landing, and Michelle Lee was the star of it, and boy, you've been on a show for a long time, and you know, by... the end people are done they're over yeah they are over it and some actors just sort of dial out some i'll just be in my trailer give me a call some get angry some get belligerent

some get sick they can't handle you know whatever it's all of the above yeah they were done with it right so i get into to i'm a businessman so i like okay let's okay we're gonna get ready to shoot now they call me to set i'm like i'm supposed to be here i'm running a meeting I have no props. I have no props. I have this ill-fitting suit. And I go to the prop guy. Hey,

can I have an out-of-shay case? Yeah, can I get like a briefcase and like a watch and like a ring like a married guy? And the guy, he literally, he rolled his eyes. You. Hang on. And he shuffled the way. It was the old MGM lot. You know, I mean.

He made him work for the first time. Oh, all these guys were like 97 years old. they were they were so over it so finally guy gives me the shitty briefcase like a pen you know and a thing a crappy watch and so we shoot it i go into makeup and the guy goes he looks at me he goes you know if i pluck between your eyebrows you'll look much more intelligent i'm like yeah okay i got home my wife was like wow you look pretty she goes i've never seen more makeup on any human being in my life because they hit you with these horrible late 80s lighting. The worst lighting ever. 82 shadows across your face. I don't know what these guys were thinking. You know, now shows look beautiful.

What the fuck was your problem in the 80s? Did you hate it? Did you hate Knott's Landing? I hated the experience. Sure. Because here's what would happen. After the very first take, very first take, it was a master, wide shot. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.

Ready and cut. Michelle Lee looks right to the camera operas. not the director or the writer goes jimmy good for you jimmy gives a thumbs up bang moving on let's go so if the camera guy was fine with it it's fine they didn't need a director in other words oh the guy was there there's just no respect none that's just i'm like that's all i've seen that i didn't do tv for five years that's just that i went this is the stupidest job ever did you ever have a bad experience with the director Just recently, I will admit, is the first time I've ever told a guy he couldn't no longer direct me. This happened recently.

Yeah. Was it on something that you film overseas? No. You don't want to talk about it. No. But you told him he couldn't direct you anymore. You don't have my back. It was after one day of shooting, and I was a producer so I could do this.

And that's why you should become a producer. Because if someone doesn't have your back, you got your own back. How did you, what made you think that you were, he didn't have your back what was it that you felt that everything um he thought was funny i thought was terrible uh everything i thought was funny he was just not interested in he was not interested in new ideas he wasn't interested didn't really have a plan of how to shoot something or block it or lay it out cocky yes as a matter of fact which was part of the problem because i'm like you don't know enough to be cocky i put up with one day of that and he next day i just he was blocking

on set. And I said, let's have a little chitty chat. I said, you know, why don't you be responsible for the scene and telling the story and putting these scenes together and blocking? And I'll take care of everything that comes out of his mouth, what he says and how he says it, and where I am and what I do. So don't you worry about that? I got me covered. You've got plenty to do. So you do that and you're going about your day. Does this work or is there a moment where he goes, Bruce, can I just ask you to do one thing, Bruce? No, if you want to chime in and actually participate in the process, I'm very happy to listen to all of your ideas.

There was another guy, another instance. I went, he's never going to give me a single note. Not a single note after a single take. So I went, well, then let's just save a lot of time. Let's roll the take and we'll do two on a roll without stopping. And then that'll be it. And that was it? Yeah.

And so I said to the first AD, so that's our new plan. I'm just going to roll it twice because I'm not going to hear anything nothing's going to happen so let me just do two I'll have a pretty good sense of whether it works and we'll move on so I've had to and it's not of any great pleasure at all

to do that. It was a very difficult thing and they did not take it well and I get that but I'm like I said to the one guy I don't know how you got this gig you said that to him yeah he goes man that was harsh

I'm like I'm telling you like it is pal what are you bringing to the party. Jesus. Yeah, what are you bringing? I've had, there's been a couple of moments in my life. And I'm, again, I'm not proud of any of it. I've also gone off on a guy who, it was for safety issues, you know, a guy blew off a squib right as I'm running through the door. The squib is at eye level and it was supposed to go off after I cleared the door jam. Could have gone behind. Guy blew it off. So I've turned around. I'm like, who, who, who gave the cue? And the director goes, I did. I go, well, then you can't anymore. You've lost that. You, you, you, you, you

clearly don't have any sense of safety that was my eye it blew off at eye level i could be blind motherfucker so you don't get to make that call anymore the effects guy's gonna make it's amazing how a moment like that could really just change your your mood and temper and just the way you feel oh you get clarity man you get clarity real quick as you go it's not worth losing an eye for this entertainment yes this is make believe this is not worth this yeah so yeah a buddy of mine on burn notice, Jeffrey Donovan. Star of the show, he's across from a guy who's going to be killed in front of him. He's being assassinated in front of Jeffrey Donovan. So a squib, he gets shot in the back and a squib comes out the front of him, a squib meaning the explosive charge that will spew

blood out. That's an actual charge that they're blowing. You know, so there's wadding. So they lined up, he's right across from the guy. They didn't, they needed to stagger each other's so that the ballistics would blow out and not go right at our star. They just didn't set it upright. Bang, the thing went off. Jeffrey whips his head around it. This thing hit him right, a wadding, hit him right in the upper lip. And it swelled up to the size of a golf ball.

And they had one more scene to shoot of him on the phone. He stuck the phone and just put it over his mouth for the whole scene. Holy shit. If that was his eye, it would have been gone. That's it. Yeah. In the blink of an eye. So have you seen the footage?

uh from that umma thurman got no i did not actually in a car crash here's the key aspect to it right he goes you got to do it you got to do it you got to do it no i don't want to do it don't do it you got to do it because it's you the shot is directly behind her head and her hair is flowing directly to the lens it could have been my grandmother in a wig you never saw an inkling of her face it was dead straight behind there was no reason in all for her to have been in that situation so part of it is hubris part of it is ignorance and part of it is you know he probably needed to learn that lesson you can't just make actors randomly do stuff and now the good news is you know they've instituted tons of new rules

in new zealand for safety workplace safety we get briefings every morning and you know it's it's a good thing it just keeps everybody because now what it is is if you see something weird you raise your hand and you say it and nobody nobody gives you the stink eye anymore no no no because we're about to do a fire gag and i don't know about you i don't like fire no and i don't like fire gags because even though it's behind you 15 feet but you hear that of the the gas going up and you feel it all on your back yeah yeah it's uncomfortable i went to the safety guy i go i need you to get some orange tape and tape me a route out of here. Which way am I going in case this shit behind me goes south? Smart. Where am I going? And no question about it. Built a beautiful route.

Moved a bunch of shit out of the way. I'm like, okay, now I'm ready to do a fire scene. I also said this, this show now. I am not shooting a live gun on the entire series of Ash versus Evil Dead. I jerked my arm and I got a guy on set. He's one of the electricians. the first AD queues it ready and bang and so I know I'm jerking on bang the lighting guy he and I are in such good he got he got it he knows when I would pause he knows when you're jerking he knows when I'm jerking

and he'll get it right and he'll do a like a sort of a goldenie flash oh okay from the from the gun you put the digital thing you put a howitzer cannon over it and you have a very wicked you have a wicked shotgun with no safety issues whatsoever. Because if you have a live gun on set now and even years ago, you'd come in, a guy would, he'd shine a light through the barrel.

And this is every time you gave it away to the guy, he'd come back and have to do this dance. Yeah. Is that clear? You get Bruce, clear. Clear over here. It's like I'm working at, you know, Pep Boys, Bay One, Bay Two. Good Bay One.

Thank you, Bay, too. And it became a really McGilla. And I don't like the noise, and I don't like the sound. safety. Yeah. So we told that to stars and they were like, they kerfuffle the bit until they saw the whole finished thing. And it's fakery, folks.

It looks beautiful because now, you know, in the old days, you'd put it, you'd fire a squib. The thing of the charge would come out of the gun and you'd have to watch the playback to make sure in playback you did not see the flash. If you saw the flash, it meant the shutter was closed. Yeah, ridiculous. Yeah, ridiculous. There's none of that.

that now. Now you go, how far would we like the flash to be? You make this beautiful orange flash to come out, you know? Now, you're seeing all this now and technology, but back then, when you're doing Evil Dead and all these movies, you're beating the shit out of yourself. I remember watching, I'm like, when you're smashing these dishes on your head, you had to have been hurt. You had to have hurt yourself. Of course. Now, we're shooting the first Evil Dead. Ash whips around, thinks he sees something outside the window, takes a shotgun, and blows the window out. So we take the shotgun, put a shell in it, camera guy's outside. Tim, Tim, Philo, Tim, where are you? He waves his hand. I'm like, I don't know. I wouldn't be there.

I wouldn't be there. This is what I was. Come on. I wouldn't be there. Okay, I'll turn it on and I'll get out of the way, but I want to be near just to sort of check. I go, I'd be there. I'd be there. And so action, turn, wheel, boom, blam. Just shoot the shit out of a window see what happens and he blows shit looks great blow the shit out of a window later Asher's got some dead eight that's running away from me

he's going to shoot the thing from behind and blow a chunk out of its shoulder he went to the butcher got a big hunk of like roast I think it was like a big pot roast taped it to this dummy in Sam's garage took a shotgun and just fucking blew the thing off the shoulder in Sam's garage

a shotgun blast in his garage you know and his parents are like what's happening it's like it's okay mom it's just killing dead eyes come on crazy just a gun just take a shotgun and just shoot it stupid stuff what's your favorite your favorite scene let's just say your top favorite two favorite scenes in all the evil dead movies the one thing where you're like this is fucking good it was the part that d lorennis didn't want in evil dead too which was there's 20 minutes in the movie where it's just me there's nobody else in the movie for 20 minutes for two reels

and Dino got extremely nervous he goes, Sam you can't have one guy in a movie for 20 minutes and people will fucking go crazy they'll die, they'll commit suicide like he just could not imagine that being possible to pull off and to me

it's the best part of the movie. It is. And I'm trying not to be dickish about it. It's a bold thing for a filmmaker to do. Put your lead guy and torture him for 20 minutes solid going through one ridiculous thing after it. Before the other get there. Yeah.

And by the time they get there, he's completely whacked out of his Gordon. They think he's a horrible killer. And he wanted to cut that way down. He didn't, he didn't want anything. What's your favorite line?

I don't know. You know, we made a bunch of them up. Did you, what was the most famous line? Groovy's probably one of the famous lines, but did you make that up? We were ready to shoot a scene with Ash and, and Beth Davids, who played Sheila in Army of Darkness.

And Sam's nowhere to be found. Like, God, can somebody find Sam? Playing with dolls. Yeah, he's dressed his fucking Sherlock Holmes. So let's shoot this shot. Come on, where is he? And we hear him giggling over in the corner. And he comes over and he's still giggling.

He goes, I know what you're going to say to her. I go, what? I'm not supposed to say anything. I just kissed her. He goes, no. No. You're going to look or first you're going to go. You're going to say to her, give me some sugar, baby.

I was like, I'm supposed to say, give me some sugar baby? he goes, yeah, it's going to be great. I go, this is the stupidest line I've ever heard. He goes, shut up, you're going to say it. Then he got pissed, you know, like, you say that line. I'm like, okay, okay. So I finally got, I know that that line ultimately had power, give me some sugar baby.

I was at a signing and a guy came up and he goes, thanks for, give me some sugar baby. Thanks for that line. Wow. I go, why? He goes, I was working in China in Beijing, and I had it translated into Mandarin. I went into a bar.

used it on a Chinese chick and got laid. Give me some sugar baby. You know what mine's favorite line is? What? I think it's Evil Dead, too, when you're looking in the mirror and you say, Oh, you cut up your girlfriend with a chainsaw, does that sound fine? That's fucking the best. Now, did he write that?

Was that written? Sam probably wrote half of it, but then as we got going, well, Sam, um, crazy director that he is, he'd throw new lines during the take. He just thought you were funny. He knew how funny you were. and he let you do it wasn't that i think he realized let's manipulate this while we're while we're making this piece of clay

army of darkness he'd keep the camera rolling and he'd go okay now you're going to say this and he'd give me a paragraph and you can remember a paragraph well no in the dailies here it is all right you old man listen here here's what's gonna happen see now spin his chin listen up and listen good so i would be listening in the dailies you'd see me listening and listening and then i'd pause going

because i'd have to say it in my head once at least and then I'd look at the guy and then I would say it and I'd get fuck most of it so I'd go wait a minute what was it again you come on you see you old spinach shit

listen to me so he'd correct me again I'd wait so that's what a lot of the dailies were was him trying new lines like right at the moment and why not why not

he did dark man he did one of the craziest things I've ever seen because I went to you know you visit your buddy on a film set he was making this movie for Universal it's kind of a big deal

I went to visit him he's got a 65 what Dolly track set up. It's a pretty good run of Dolly track. Sure. And all this crap is happening with all these actors and there's a lot of rigmarole and this thing is tracking and tracking and tracking and tracking gets all the way to the end and Sam goes

reset back to one. Like meaning don't cut. So the grip's like, oh shit. So they pushed the thing all the way back 60 feet. The hair people would come in to do stuff. Sam would go, get out of my shot. As long as the camera was rolling, he own that shot because his biggest

complaint was, as soon as you call time, as soon as you call cut. Everybody's coming in to fix things. You're hurting cats. Half the people walk away. Right. And too many people come in. Get out of my fucking shot. Keep rolling. So he goes, film is the cheapest

commodity. So he'd redo a 60. And now, energy wise, the actors are going, oh, fuck. Okay. All right, get ready. Back on reset. And so their energies, they're spiking in energy because they're like, oh, shit. Okay. And they button their

jack it up again they'd fix their own hair they all do it themselves oh absolutely and they know what they have to do yeah and i know what i need to fix you see i'm shouting out do the day with the day with a baha bha do another take back to one on a roll i mean these guys no time to think just do it nothing and you know a lot of editors had a lot of extra work finding shit so you'd have three takes on one sure on one slate he pioneered a lot of weird methods sam he had a whole sequence in evil dead where it was I want, Asch is going crazy. And it's another good sequence in the original movie.

I'm going to shoot the whole sequence at a 45-degree tilt. Oh, yeah. Visually today, it looks, it just makes it look like a modern movie. But I remember at the time, we were sitting around a table at this crappy rented house in Morristown, Tennessee, going,

you want to shoot the whole sequence? Like in 45 degrees? And he's like, yeah. I mean, he stayed up all night, like drawing these crazy, storyboards. Unbelievable. And so we were like, let's go. And it visually, it doesn't even look weird. Right where it was in the movie, you kind of go, yeah, everything's a little cockyed right now. Everything's cockyed. And he used his former magician background. He loves

sleight of hand stuff. He's got a thing where a creature's supposed to levitate. And we have $12 to make this movie. There's no stunt rigging. There's another crap. So the actress was Ellen Sandwis. We called it the elevator. she sat on a seat sort of between her legs from behind and then she was strapped in to a seesaw so two guys and it went to the camera was straight in front of her

and she was standing in front of a window and so the rig went back out through the window but where the camera was you couldn't see that she was attached to anything and there's two guys with a 20-foot pole just pushing down just they pushed down and up she goes And then they could wiggle her a little bit side to side.

No wires, no nothing. It cost a dollar. You know, so he used a lot of his just magician skills. We used to do bar mitzvahs, me and Sam. And that's where he realized hurting me in front of people works. And they laugh, and so he knows that that works. Because I was his assistant, hung low. We wore, like, lab coats.

And every time he would ask me to do some, hung low, yeah. Every time I would do something for him, he'd take like a riding crop. and hit me and all the kids thought that was just the funniest thing ever. And so a big light bulb over Sam of like Bruce plus pain equals gold. Do you guys we're going to go because we're going to go out to dinner. I'm taking this

We are. By the way Rob, you've never seen the Evil Dead movies, have you? Briscoe County Jr., Bubba Hotep. The list goes on. Mission control that we were in. Didn't ever air. Never aired. I've seen some of Vash versus Evil Dead on Stars, though. Yeah. Pretty radical. Do you in a, Sam?

ever go we got one left in us down the road something big that we want to work on something like me and you like old times something come on like a seat in your face i could see it it's sort of i think we i think we know enough that it's okay we've done it we've done it we did a lot of stuff together you know and you've done everything together he's got 47 kids and you know that's the only downside of what we do is that these jerks run off and start families and then it It's hard to see, you know. It's hard to see each other. It really is.

And it's nothing out of malice. It's just you don't have time. Well, you moved. You're God. I moved. I can't even go. It gets stone smoke riding bikes with you. Yeah, I took off to Oregon.

I finally got him up. I got Sam and two of his pasty city kids up. Did they love it? Oh, they were injuring themselves every single day. And it was hilarious. The one kid, he turned to one point goes, do you just hurt yourself every day living in the country? And you're like, shut up, hung low. We're like, yeah.

If you don't watch where you're going and trip over that route. you know i took him to see the bigfoot trap i don't know that we have a bigfoot trap built by the forest service in the fricking 70s about a half hour an hour from where i live in oregon and what is the big foot it was built to catch bigfoot it was a trap it was an elevated trap with springs and it's still there it was like an elevator like it was like an express elevator like a freight elevator right right and bigfoot presumably would go oh look some peanut butter That looks good. I'll step onto this platform that has nothing to do with nature.

And then by stepping on it, would lower it, and the gates would close. And now it's just a shadow of its former self. But the fact that our government built a big foot trap is just so astounding. I want to come visit. You should. Come up. We'll do part two from my balcony. I would like that.

I think that would be fun. I think we'd have a good time. Well, then we can talk about issues like land management. I don't know much about land management. I'll share what I know another time. Do you have one of those big bells to make sure everybody in your family is back home at a certain time? No, I have a BB gun. I just shoot them.

Shoot them right in the Irish. Yeah. What's your handle on the Twitter? At Groovy Bruce. You always seem to tweet me and make fun of me. That's important to do that because you run around stone with your friend singing silly Christmas songs. I do. Yeah.

And I totally appreciate that. But you're setting yourself up for ridicule. I love it. I love ridicule. I feel you just got to look stupid. Yeah, I troll Tom Hanks, too. Do you? Hanks is always looking down.

He takes pictures of shit on sidewalks. Does he respond to you? Oh, no, no, no, no. Not like I do. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's Thomas Hanks. No, Mr. Tom Hanks. I'm Mr. Tom Hanks.

I'm Tom Hanks, America's favorite actor. And your book, Best Seller, it's... Hale to the chin, the further confessions of a B-movie actor. Chronicles pretty much from 2001 until now. it's well worth to read There's lots of pictures too Ain't gonna take you long The audio version

If you got a shitty commute Ooh That's out How long is it the audio version Six hours That's actually pretty great A broad dynamite And it's you narrate

Yeah you got to If it's your stinking book You got it And if you're a bogus actor You gotta read it Maybe I'll write a book Well everybody's got a book dog Everybody's got a book

Write it Because you'll have a good one I have some dark shit But then you got to decide Yeah, well, you got to decide. Who's going to help me? You don't necessarily need help, not for your first one. You slug it out the first time.

Really? Yeah. There I was on the set. My bald apparatus was coming off in the heat. I shaved my head. It was a four-three shoot. I didn't want to be there anymore. My contract was up.

I said, no, no. I quit. I quit. I couldn't stare at that good-looking Superman for one more day. I looked at myself with the Nixon bruises. Yeah. Thank you for allowing me to be inside. of you, Bruce Campbell.

Well, you felt good inside of me. This was great. Let's go have some food. Rob. Let's. Thanks. Thanks. Hi, I'm Joe Sallsee.

Hi, host of the stacking Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax-advantaged retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle.

A separate bucket for this addition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast partner. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. Stacky Benjamin's, follow and listen on your favorite platform.