Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - BRUCE CAMPBELL: His Cancer Diagnosis, Leaving Hollywood & How the Worst of Times Became the Best

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, Burn Notice) joins me this week for one of the most honest and moving conversations I have had on the show. Bruce opens up about his cancer diagnosis, the whack a mole life of living with something treatable but not curable, and the strange waves of gratitude that have left him feeling more present and more grateful than ever. We also get into making his new movie Ernie and Emma with full creative control for the first time since Evil Dead, walking away from the fear based studio system, and why he says he ruined himself by finally learning what a good film set feels like. Thank you to our sponsors: 🔹 Blue Chew: bluechew.com + “inside” 💖 Join Our Community: https://patreon.com/insideofyou __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou⁠⁠ 👕 Inside Of You Merch: ⁠⁠https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🤣 TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast⁠⁠ 📘 Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod⁠⁠ 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now streaming on Disney Plus, the Hulu original series Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black, played by Emmy Rossum, on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. New episodes week over week. Watch the Hulu original series Furious, now streaming only on Hulu on Disney Plus. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Ryan Tejas is here. I am here. Good to see you, buddy.

Good to see you. A lot of traveling. A lot of traveling. This show is great. Today, if you're a Bruce Campbell fan and you're not a fan of mine, please listen. I think you're going to love it. And if you love it, all I ask is like, hey, subscribe, write a review. That would really help.

So if you like the show, do me the flavor. It's really an amazing interview. not because of me because of just Bruce. He's a good friend and we talk about life. We talk about, you know, the C word. It just, it went into a place I wasn't expecting. It was, I love this guy. And I'm sure you do too.

If not, you will after this interview. A few things before we get started. If you want to support this podcast more, you can join patreon.com slash inside of you. It's right here on the screen. I'm sure it's right there. But what's great is there's so many perks to being a patron. You could be on the show, actually.

You could have your name shouted out at the end of every episode. You could get boxes from me every couple of months. You can ask questions to the guest and so much more. And you're part of a great community. So many people have become good friends. And people discuss mental health and whatever else is on their mind. We also have a thing on Patreon doing the work where I do a video of, hey, This is what I'm trying to do and feel better.

And people will write in and send videos of how they're doing and what they're, you know, what adversity they're facing. So it's pretty neat. Patreon.com slash inside of you to join. You also go to the inside of you online store to get tons of smallville merch and inside of you merch. There's some great tumblers and all that stuff. But smallville scripts, funcos that you can't get. They're here and they're signed by me, all that stuff and more.

So do that. And, uh, you know, a lot of cons. coming up going to Chicago Fan Expo, Boston Fan Expo, Houston. We got Nashville with the entire cast in November. You'll probably go to that one, won't you? Probably. Probably. But anyway, thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting this podcast. Thank you to our sponsors for believing in this podcast. And yeah, that's all I have to say about that. Let's just do it. Let's get inside of the wonderful. wonderfully entertaining, Bruce Campbell. Where you get nervous for a role. Oh my God, I get panicked.

Do you get anxiety? Yeah, I live with anxiety. What are you doing? I was just taking a live picture. I always get nervous, but that's fun. I look forward to it. Let's get everything out of today we can. And how much time do you have left and how are you going to use it well?

So come on now. We would have to do another inside of you. But actually, but that's kind of what you do with my job. Well, I mean, you're on this road, this journey of what's inside of you. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. Okay, he's pinned. Ouch, I feel pinned. You're pinned, dude.

What is a poster over your left shoulder? My left shoulder, that's Sean of the Dead. And in front of me, what you can't see is Evil Dead that you signed for me. Yeah, well, that's not on camera, is it? There's a camera on me, and then there's a wide shot. Oh. Your poster is always visible. Okay, okay.

Are you using some filter? Because I've never seen you look this handsome in your entire life. It's called sunlight. It's called daylight. It's called Oregon. It's called Oregon's summer, baby. Because last summer I was finishing up a motion picture and post-production when, as you know, you're rotting in dark rooms looking outside going, wow, it looks nice out there. So I vowed this summer to have a summer.

Right. So I get July and August off, baby. You know, I came up there to visit you. And I got to tell you, I had the time of my life. I mean, I really didn't want to leave. Because, you know, you talk a pretty good game. I know, the mean game. And you were like, yeah, buddy, you know, I went there.

And the next thing you know, I'm looking at houses on Zillow. Look, it's just, it's a thing that happens. We love inviting people up because it blows their little mind because they go, oh, not that you have a little mind, but it blows. their mind because they go, wait, I don't have to live in Los Angeles because it took me a while to get there. I spent about 10 years in L.A. And then I went, where did I work recently? Like, this is in 1997. I did two lists, column A, column B. 70% was not Los Angeles of my work. Only 30% was, and this is in the 90s, I went, I'm out of here. Woo! Yeah, but there's something there that's just really special it's almost like you immediately once i got to your

place and your surroundings i just for the first time kind of felt just like i i exhaled here's what you don't have you don't have you then you don't hear bo pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop you don't hear that was i remember you telling you go how long do you go without hearing a chopper traffic hornhawks, sirens, barking dogs, leaf blowers, because every neighbor changes. The guy goes from the next house so that you actually have leaf blowers every day of the week in Los Angeles. And they're blowing onto each other's properties. So sometimes, you know, it takes a while out. This podcast is not sponsored by livein, L.A.com.

No, this is sponsored by Get the Hell to Oregon.com. You're right. Actually, we did a census recently. I guess we're full. Oregon's full? Oregon's full. So Idaho has tons of open space. They'd love to have you. Bruce doesn't want you to move to Oregon. Stay away. It's not that I don't. It's just I don't think you should because it would make Oregon less special. My favorite articles have this. Ten hidden places you've never been to before. I'm like, wow, you just ruined ten places with your article.

They're all going to go to that fountain and they're all going to go crap. in those woods. You're right, though, you know, of all the jobs I've gotten, most of them are out of town. Especially now, since actors, between actors and writers, we managed to piss off the industry so much, the industry went, okay, we're now going, we're leaving, we're leaving the entire state. They're leaving Hollywood. There's a little piece of paper floating back down to the ground in Hollywood, you know, and it's the last call sheet that they paid. some guy, you know, and it's, it's, it's, uh, industries come and go, baby. I watched the auto industry

die in front of me. I'm watching the pair industry die where I live now, taken over by wine and weed, uh, bigger cash crops than Harry and David. Yeah. So it happens. So the film industry, look, the film industry, LA did nothing to stop it from going to Toronto in the 70s. They were faking New York city in Toronto in the 70s. And L.A. did nothing about it because it went, ah, we're a 92% of the business, you know. So they didn't do anything.

They lost it to, I mean, the fact that the state of Georgia has one of these famous England studios, it's like not L Street, but it's another one, Shepard, it's Shepard, whatever. They built one in Atlanta. That's how.

how much business was coming into Georgia and Atlanta, that these brand name overseas stages went, I'm going to, Sheperton, I'm going to come in and build a stage in Georgia, proper stage. It showed you how the industry had changed. Now Georgia, I'm hearing a suck and sound coming out of Georgia right now, too, because they just left the whole country.

I think the film industry went, nah. So if you watch your next favorite miniseries and actors are kind of talking like that, trying to sound like they're American, you'll know they just bailed on the country entirely. They're shooting in Bulgaria. It's just so ironic that Hollywood is not where they're making most of the movies and TV. Not even close anymore. It's just. I wouldn't want to be a rental company. Wouldn't want to be a stage right now.

And because of AI, I wouldn't want to be a background. performer. I wouldn't want to be a stunt guy. I'm fine being an old retired guy riding his electric trike up in Oregon. I think my timing was pretty good. You've really done well with yourself. You've really done good, my friend. Well, the idea is at some point, aren't you supposed to stop nose to the old grindstone and shove your nose in a flower? Isn't that what's supposed to happen after a certain point? You're not there yet, but you're knocking on the door. You know, You have to have an epiphany, though. Epiphanies have to happen.

When I was 40, I just was like, what the hell am I doing in a city that I never would have lived here if it wasn't for the film business? Inside of you is brought to you by Blue Chew. Thank you, Blue Chew. You guys want to hear this. Guys, if your lady or your fellow or that person that sends you an eggplant emoji at 2 a.m. is ready for some sacks, then you should be too. And that's where Blue Chew comes in. I've got my little Blue Chew Gold,

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Visit bluechew. That's B-L-U-E-C-H-E-W.com. Blu-C-H-E-W. For more details and important safety information, and we thank Blue Choo for sponsoring our podcast or my podcast. Do you think the fear is that we get bored? Like if we leave too early and you're too young? If you leave too early, they'll forget you and you'll starve and you'll get bored.

And you'll get bored and it won't suit you and you'll have to go back. And, you know, there's, well, there's always that because there's this stuff. You saw everything on paper. You saw this, you know, suburban nice area, a little old neighborhood, the old house and all that. But, you know, our little town is not a perfect, there's no such thing as a perfect little town. Yeah. There's so many annoying things shopping at my local co-op where everyone is moving at 15. percent of their normal speed.

You know, it was great is the fact that we, you know, you want to let's go for a walk. And I go, ah, shit, all right. You know, me walking. And it was like an eight minute walk. We're in town. There's a park. There's restaurants. There's shops.

There's bars. It's beautiful. Waterfalls. I'm like, what is going. It's a village life. It's called the village life where, because look, we tried the country life. I live without cell service for, I don't know. 20 years out in the, in the middle of nowhere.

Then I went, I got to reconnect with all my friends in Los Angeles, moved back there for a year, ran away with my hair on fire screaming. I tried to live in suburban San Francisco. My daughter lives up there. Same thing after year screaming. How many times can a guy light his hair on fire? You know, not that many. So I bailed.

We came back to our little town that I had grown annoyed with. And all of a sudden, I was like, oh, that's right. I'm not annoyed anymore. This is charming. You know, we talk about Hollywood and all this. And I remember, you know, I always bring it up, but we had like a conversation. It's like, you know, the acts of life,

you know, the first, second, and third act. Yeah. Oh, yeah. In your third act, you decided, fuck it. I'm going to write, produce, and direct my own movie. Yeah, because I was bitching about it a lot. And I used to, my dad used to complain about his job as an ad guy. And I was like, Dad, either stop complaining or quit.

You got to do one or the other. And I think my wife was there with me. Either let's make this movie or shut the hell up about this. And so I give my wife, I had a lot of credits. She let us pull the trigger and make a movie so that I could make one movie at one point in my life since Evil Dead, because it's the only other movie that we had full creative control. over what was the very first evil dead. Since then, it's always been partnering,

getting studio money. You have to play their game and all that. So this was a long time in the making of being able to just make a project that does not have any participation in anyone other than who I either hire or want to work with. Nobody is foisted upon me. Because what happens, obviously,

when you make a movie, let's say, for Paramount, they've been making movies for a long time. They think they know how to make movies the best way. And so they tell you how to make movies the Paramount way because it's their money. And so no filmmakers should really complain about how Universal treats them or Paramount or, you know, Sony, whatever, because they each have their way of making movies

and they don't want to be told what to do. And because they're giving you the money, They want to protect their money. So they're going to protect it by, A, assigning you a Schmendrick. Gummo Schmendrick is your guy. So he's going to be there. Hi, how are you? How's it going?

And they don't really know what to say or participate in, but they are the ears and eyes for that production. And it's based on fear. They're usually just trying to cover their out. It's all fear-based. Yeah. It's all fear-based. Will the production get away from them? will this director listen to what they're saying?

Will the writer take the notes? Now, I have a dear friend, and this is what urges me to do this. A dear friend of mine has final cut on motion pictures. I think I know who this friend is. Doesn't matter. Right. About 10 or so directors, maybe 20 have final cut. Not many.

Right. And final cut, meaning you turn your movie in and they give you notes and you go, no, I have final cut, the dog dies. This is, you know, this is how it's going to be. That's my ending. So, my dear friend who has Final Cut, would submit his movie to the studio, and they would have 50 editing notes. And he'd go through them very patiently, and he'd say to them, guys, I went through your notes, you know what? You guys had like 10 solid notes. Did them, right. About 20 I'm not too sure about, so I'm going to have to wait on that. And the rest, I honestly just, I can't agree with.

So I did 10 of your notes, 10 year changes. So here you go. Here's the newest version. Oh, Sam, excuse me, whatever your name is. Hey, sure appreciate that. You know, great. Those were great. Our notes were great.

The changes you made from our notes were great. How about the other 40? Well, I told you that, you know, some were okay. I wanted to wait and some just we couldn't make them work. Yeah, right. Yeah, I understand that. Appreciate that. But, you know, we need like another 20.

I mean, it just, it's just, it's relentless. And it doesn't mean the movie's going to get any better, but it's better according to them, according to their people. And look, if we thought PR ran the show before, you know, these guys are, they're dumping this shit into AI. Should we make this movie? A million percent. It's all from marketing people.

Does this movie make money? Get approval from marketing first. In order to make your movie, I think we've lost the plot. And filmmakers need, well, filmmakers should be aware of it as a cautionary tale, but so should audiences. Because it just means that the things that you're watching in the theater are filtered and strained and homogenized and changed. and cut and adapted. Very much different from what the original filmmaker ever had in mind. Anytime I've ever worked with this studio,

the ending has changed, scenes have been eliminated, casting has recasting has taken place, big changes. I was removed from my first studio movie as the star of the movie, Crime Wife. I was supposed to be the star of this movie, Crime Wave, after we did Evil Dead. It was a romantic comedy, action, all kinds of stuff. stuff, had a dance number, big departure from Evil Dead, financed by Norman Lear's company in

1983, and they said, this guy can't be the lead. That was the very first thing that happened on our first studio movie is Campbell gets the boot. And I'm like, oh, my God, that was fast. Because we had just come from a movie where Sam goes, you're starring in the movie. we hire all the cast members. It's Sam's edit. There's no director's cut for Evil Dead. There's one cut. It's Sam's cut.

So it's our poster. It's our photograph. It's our photographer. It's our concept. It's our tagline. It's our name of the movie. I mean, there was nothing that wasn't ours in the first Evil Dead. If it sucks, it's our fault.

The fact that it was successful, we take pride in it, because it's a very handmade movie. That's an anomaly. But there was more of that in 1979. There was more of that handmade crap that you got some investors together and you tried to make your movie. Because of witnessing the things that my friends had to go through who are really well-respected directors, I'm like, and I never liked that game. No. I always had a problem hanging out with executives.

I didn't really care about their kids. Yeah. I still don't. You know what I mean? There was a business affairs guy who said this thing to my wife that was the most amazing thing I've ever heard because it summed it all up. Because I was in the middle of negotiating with a company and this business affairs guy had come to visit us on sets. He knew me. He knew my wife.

And he said to my wife at one point, he goes, Ida, you got to understand something. I don't care about my wife's problems. So if you think I'm going to care about your husband's problems. What? And I've even, okay, so that right there you go, wow. Okay, that was quite the statement. Followed by your husband's never going to get what he wants because he's not with a big enough agency. Jesus.

Why? Why should we give you what you want? They got no leverage because if they had leverage, they'd go, you better give Campbell what you want because you're not going to get, you know, Ron Perlman. And it actually does make sense in a horrible, cynical way. So all that just makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. So it was really a blast. And whether this movie succeeds or fails, Ernie and Emma, it's a story that I was able to write and work out logistics with my wife. Nobody else, because she goes, do you have to shoot in Detroit?

Because that was the original concept. He was a Detroit admin, which is my background. My dad was an ad guy. And she goes, it's our money. Why don't we make this as perfect as possible? Why can't we sleep on our own bed? You haven't slept in your own bed, make a movie? I mean, my shaving kits stays out at the time because I'm not.

grabbing it and throwing it into a bag. You know that life. And so she's like, why don't you sleep in your own bed? You know, maybe we could like have lunch at home. Wouldn't that be weird? I'm like, yeah, wait, what? It's your time on your dime. Yeah, our dime.

So when is the best time to make a movie in our area of Southern Oregon? June. Everything's up. Green. Reservoirs are up. The rivers are flowing. And that's when you do it. You just can't get makeup.

and hair people because they're all doing weddings. Did you get makeup and hair? It seemed like you did. No, we did, but it wasn't easy because they're all doing weddings in June. You've heard the June bride. There's a reason why there's a June bride because June is one of the best months. So we shot the movie where we wanted to

at the exact time. We specifically targeted June. And I swear to God, the day that we wrapped was the end of June, a wildfire began out in the boonies in our our air was not as clear after that. Because we have vistas in this little tiny movie. We have a lot of vistas and they would not have worked unless you have clear, beautiful air. And we have that until about July.

So those are the decisions. We didn't have to shoot it in Bulgaria or Romania or Canada, as lovely as all of those countries are. We didn't have to make a stupid decision. And I could use the people that I wanted. It's so bizarre over the years. I think back of all the people I was not able to use because of it's either the studio was this or the studio was that or you know you have no say in this or they won't listen to you for that.

So, you know, it was really a treat to be able to get up every day and go to work and no one's giving me notes. And I could just, I could do snotty stuff as a filmmaker that I've always wanted to do. Look, first of all, Ernie and Emma is a heartfelt comedy drama about a widowed pair salesman named Ernie who takes a road trip to scatter his late wife, Emma's ashes, in places she chose before she died along the way he deals with grief,

memories, and finding a new purpose in life. And here's the deal. I'm going to be honest with you. When my friends say, hey, I want you to watch my movie, you know, and this and that, I always get, I always get a little nervous because I'm like, I want to love it, but the critic in me is always like, because I'm jaded. It's like I've been in the movie industry for a while. And so I see things. And I got to tell you, my girlfriend, Jack and I watched it. And I just fell in love with it. And it just, it took me by surprise because it's like this, in a sense, the simple story. And you think, okay, this is what's happening.

And then you have this realization at the end that the character has. And you almost have it at the same time of sort of this. This is what it was all for in a way. this is, you know, finding purpose, finding, but it was just beautiful and fun. Well, his wife, it's just his wife loved him, you know. Yeah, exactly. She knew in advance that he was going to be a disaster. Yes.

And very organized. That's why she sort of organizes this Mr. Toad's wild ride of their life. And, you know, she knows that he's got some stuff that he's not been dealing with. and she's going to make him deal with it. And to me, that's where the drama was. I like dropping a bomb on a character that can't handle it. This is my theory of diehard. It should have been an accountant in the air vent with the tie

and the four-shymed shoes stuck in the airvent. Not an ex-L-A cop. That was one of the biggest cop-outs you could. get. It's Bruce Willis in the airman. No, no, no, no, no, no. The guy to defeat the international terrorist is a guy who's never fired a gun in his

life. But guess what? He's smart. So anyway, Ernie, if Ernie and Emma, because Hollywood likes dropping bombs on guys who have X-form or Navy SEals, you know, because they think that's what

makes it plausible. I want to make it hard. Right. I want to drop a bomb on a guy who has not looked back in a while. He's got his 0-3, his Lincoln Continental, that he's bombing around it because that's when his life was humming. He's set in his ways. He's not at the golf club anymore. He doesn't do the crappy local ads anymore.

He's watching crappy TV. And he's just, he's a bloody married guy. It's like, he's kind of, he's cashed it in. And I know guys, I know guys my age who have like, I'm done. I'm not changing. I'm not eating. well, I'm not doing anything well because I just don't care. Yeah.

You know, as you know, you want to have an arc. You want to take a guy from A to B. I don't think they have to move all that much as far as your character art, but they've got to do something. And I love redemption. I love when a character is either less broken by the end, less of a criminal by the end, less of an asshole by the end. So, you know, I want them to.

eventually root for Ernie. That's what I'm saying. Root for Ernie. It's like it hits you where that's why I say that realization, you kind of feel like you're realizing the situation with him. Like, wait a minute. This is what it was all for. This is like I'm doing this. Why do you want me to do this? Fuck, I got to do this. This. I got to punch this fucker out. And then all of a sudden hits you like, no. The purpose is I want you to keep living. I want you to live. I want you to live. I want you to live. It's sort of a life after death story that is their life after death. It's one of those sort of things. Like, look, I saw it happen to my dad.

My dad was divorced when he was mid-60s. And then he rekindled an old relationship and was married again for another 10 years. And I asked him, I go, dad, when you rekindled that, like, what was it like? He goes, I felt exactly like a teenager. Like his heart would flip when he saw her. get a little nervous in his stomach. He'd stumble over his words. He wasn't as elechman.

You know, he was nervous. And I thought, wow, it's good to hear that those things, they might be covered with dust, but the feelings can still come back. You can still re-engage. You can still meet new people. And, you know, if I have to, I'll go on the retirement home tour with this.

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My name is Peter Parker, but I'm also Spider-Man. This Thursday, we're faced with a threat. That can be anyone. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker. I'm just a neighbor, friendly neighbor. But he hasn't forgotten them. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing. That's my responsibility.

Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand new day in theaters Thursday. Inside of you is brought to you by Patreon. Yeah, you know, Ryan, I'm talking about Patreon. This is a place where people can congregate online. and talk about episodes, talk about life, people have made friends. There's so many perks, and most importantly, you've certainly helped this podcast.

And I know a lot of people have come up to me about their health, their mental health, and how I open up about that stuff and talk to guests. And it really blows me away. But it's such a wonderful community. And you guys have really helped me. And if you're out there and you're listening and you like the podcast and you want to support us, patreon.com slash inside of you. There's so many perks.

and I always look at it like, you know, people pay streamers for a lot of entertainment. Well, you got our regular YouTube channel for the episode. You got our clips channel. You got the Patreon. You get so much fun. You could be on the show. You can get boxes from me every couple of months. You can ask questions to guests and much, much more.

And I really appreciate your help and support of the podcast. So patreon.com slash inside of you. If you want to support and give back to Patreon, we really appreciate you. Thanks. And you were talking about getting your health ready. I know that's the elephant in the room. We talked about it. I know you're a private guy.

I know you don't like to talk about shit. But like, how are you doing? Are you referring to my cancer diagnosis? You have cancer? Nicely done. Great acting, by the way. Some of your best work right there. No, how are you doing?

So I announced it because I wanted to phrase it and put it out there. That was, I guess, several months ago now. Yeah. I'm basically, I think I'm doing. as well as you can do for having cancer. I mean, I go through most of my day, not thinking that I have any cancer. It's a bit of a whack-a-mole life that I have to get used to.

There was a couple of early months where you're first getting information that you didn't know, that you didn't want, and that's bad. We would, like, for breakfast, we'd have a shit sandwich with a side of what the fuck. That was a couple of, month period where the information would come in and, you know, all of it's like cryptic or bad

or whatever. And I didn't know numbers, what numbers were good, numbers, bad numbers. So it's a lot of schooling I didn't want to go to. It's a lot of meetings I didn't want to go to. I thought story meetings were boring or editing. Cancer meetings. The most boring. The most boring of all. And time consuming. You kind of kind of be there. Like when they got to, scan you and shit, you got to show up. So in my experience, it's a whack-a-mole life. So your cancer goes, hey, what's going on over here? Let me wiggle into this. And then you go, oh, why does this feel like it does? Did I throw my back out? No, you've been invaded, right? So then you whack, you whack the mole. So you whack it. And now, so I'm in between waxed.

I've done two or, I had about two or three wax that I had to whack because of residual stuff that cancer causes. Right. Within your body. So I've done a couple of wax and the mole is in its hole right now. And, you know, and I'm ready with my hammer. So it's kind of, that's the life is something that the clinical phrase that I love these phrases, it's treatable, not curable. Right, right. So it'll be something that will be with me until I croak.

which with treatment is, you know, earlier than you want to croak. But without treatment, I guess it would be earlier. So, you know, I'm going to do treatment that I can deal with and that works. Because treatments work, work a little, they work for a while, and then that treatment will stop working so you have to jump to the next. Yeah, part of the issue is with something that is treatable, they keep trying to treat it. And so they don't go,

here are the five ways to treat your cancer. Number four seems to be the best. There's no one through five. No one goes, they can't point to any one of them. So you start with this one and you throw it up on the wall. Hey, look at that. How about, you know, but your body's pretty smart, apparently. And if your body wants to kill you, it'll fucking kill you.

Yeah. Because that's your time. You know, obviously, look, my immune system had gotten compromised by, I mean, And I had had the worst flu I probably ever had in my life just before an international trip to go see the troops in Japan. I mean, I was on half on death's door, came back, buddy mine dies to go to clean out his place. I get a staff infection in my thumb. I'm on antibiotics for weeks and weeks. I mean, I swear to God, my immune system probably went, open for business.

Jesus. It was all related to that time period. Is that what opened the gate? Is that what did it? Lifestyle. Because, you know, there were no previous indications or anything before that. Yeah. And it all sort of moved pretty quick.

So I'm in the middle of it. And part of the panic of the early phases is, who are my people? Yeah. And all the words that I don't like an oncologist, a urologist, a radiologist. You know, so you learn all that. They're all lovely people. They're all younger than me, which I guess, okay, that's fine. I have supple minds.

there's a lot of people who have what I have in the value that I live in because there's a bunch of old people. So they have treatment facilities. I'm grateful in a small town. I don't have to go to Boise. Right, right. And, you know, you get all the recommendations. You got to go here. You got to see this guy.

Oh, you haven't tried reverse osmosis. Oh, you got it. You shoot that right up your nose. All your cancer is gone in 24 hours. So you have to be careful of the infomercial crap. You have to be careful of the time. talk radio crap of the podcast crap because there's no end to it and there's no end to the story the success stories uh that you know i've had i've had brain cancer for 72 years and i'm still

you know i don't know i mean you can see all these videos but that gives you hope there is hope there's like with technology and things you got i mean you have hope still yes oh yeah oh i have tons of hope, but mostly it's because I have something to do. I have a movie that I have to sell internationally, and so I have a full-time job. And it's a job that I don't hate.

And the fact, because I used to touring used to be a pain in the ass after a while. Touring again to talk about a 40-year-old movie, same jokes, same questions, same answers. I live in a whole different world now. You show a movie to people about a guy

spreading the ashes of his dead wife, you don't get chainsaw questions. You don't get boomstick questions. There was a guy. This is what I love in Boise. There's a guy, because we do the Q&A afterwards. He raises his hand. He goes, hey, yeah, I don't know what's going on.

I had kind of a lousy day. I go, really? Yeah, I lost your ticket. And then I had a car problem. The car was breaking down. I didn't think I was going to get here. And I come here and I watch your movie, and I cried five times.

And he was mad. He was kind of mad about it. You pissed this guy off. That's not what he really wanted or expected after having a bad day to begin with. He didn't want to have to cry five times on top of it. So I sent $5 back through the crowd. I bet you did. I bet you did.

And you can trust these crowd. I passed it back about 30 rows in the sky. I'm sorry, sir. Here's a dollar for every time you cried. I hope your car is working good. So no one wants you to say groovy. So it's really, it's very refreshing. So that is going to be something that is, you know,

people talk about the mental aspect of when you have a health opportunity. What do you do to keep you healthy? That's it. You do crap that you like. Yeah. And I'm going to say this. Yes. Maybe in wrapping up this boring topic,

I was asked the other day, hey, you know, how you doing? And I was like, okay, how about this perspective? If you want to get your financial house in order from A to Z, get cancered. If you want to rekindle with friends and family that you haven't talked to in decades, get cancer. If you want to refocus your life, laser focus only on the things that bring you joy and remove the drudgery from your life forever. get cancer. Jesus. And appreciate the good stuff in your life.

I have these waves of gratitude. It just, it almost, it chokes me up. I can't, it'll just hit me. And then I, it's just,

it's overwhelming. And I'm like, wait, I'm supposed to want to jump off a bridge right now, aren't I? You know what I mean? But the opposite is happening. It's weird.

It's tough to talk about because I'll look at my wife and I'll go, holy shit. shit. I'm living with an angel. I've been given an angel. And she was sort of my bitchy wife a couple months ago. When Westchette first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different.

People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere. And two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when West Jet welcomes you on board. Here's to Westjetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at Westjet.com slash 30 years. So, you know, that's another one, too.

Rekindle a relationship with a close, significant other, gave cancer. Because it strips all the other crap away, taking the garbage out, recycling, who's going to do this, who's going to do that? All that shit is just gone. It's all gone. You're like, hey, buddy, let's go for a walk. You got me, too, you fucker. You got me.

I don't know why you fucking... It's the weirdest pride product. This is beautiful, though. This is what people... And it's why I think the universe is not an asshole. I think the universe is okay still, because I am literally having the best of times while someone would say the worst of times.

I made a movie with my wife that we were able to finance and that we were able to get into theaters and that we were able to finish. We were able to show and get a distribution deal. I have a distribution. deal. Most filmmakers would sling your throat to get their movie in a theater. I'm in 18 theaters, you know? Yep.

Fuck off, all you use streamers. I don't need you yet. I got a theatrical deal. You know, so that, again, same thing. Waves of gratitude. It just, it's, it, it, it leaves me for clempt. You know what? You know what? It makes me feel everything you just said is so poignant because it makes me feel that why wait till you get cancer to feel all this? Oh, well, isn't that the lesson? So now I go, ah, shit. I guess that was the lesson that I needed to learn. Shit. So is this

what's going to do it? Well, if this what does it in your last X amount of years are exponentially improved because you're now present as hell, you want to get present, get cancer. Yeah, I used to, I walked, leaning forward. And that's how the future pulls me forward. And it's hard sometimes for me to be present. It's a lot easier right now. And it's really fun to walk out of one of these boring-ass cancer meetings and see a sea of these faces in the waiting room.

And just to say, hey, guys, have you have a great day today. And just to look at the faces of like, fuck you. It's fun to mess with that. And I guess it makes me realize how reverent I think I actually really am because I think at the end of the day, I'll be flipping death off too. You know, our state as you can you can pull your own plug. You can euthanize yourself. Yeah, in my state of Oregon. And I got to tell you, I don't mind having that in my back pocket one little bit.

I mean, why should humans suffer? If you put animals down. Why should anyone suffer? You want to move on, put an end of this. you got to be able to do it. Are you getting tired of people always visiting you and wanting to visit you? Yeah, that's the downside of cancer. Those people,

that's the only downside of cancer, by the way, is all these assholes want to come and stay. Because normally they would just talk about it. That's the crazy. Yeah, I'm going to come up. You know, you and I. I got cancer. I booked my flight.

I just booked my flight. The second I said I had cancer, like eight friends booked their flight. So God bless them, but it gets me pissed too because I'm like, hey Dix, is that what it took? You couldn't come up? You couldn't come up because we were pals? You got to wait on dying to come up? No, I've always wanted to come up.

I was going to come up. You got to wait so I'm wearing the Wonderbred shirt. Is that what's happening here? First of all, this conversation is fucking awesome. And you better not tell me to cut anything because I know you. But this is like, this is so. I don't think you have to from this because I didn't really reveal much. And the main reason I'm not giving names or symptoms of that is just because I don't want to get into the competition with somebody who has a worst cancer or a better cancer.

This is what you need to do. This is what you need. And you're like, I just please. Oh, yeah, that type of cancer. Same thing that's happened to me because I had this emergency neck surgery. Right. I have a pick in my arm and all this stuff. Right.

And the second I mentioned it. Oh, you got to see the guy in Bolivia. Oh, yeah. You need to go to this guy. And they have this new, this cream. You put in your penis. And they hang you up and down and beat you with a stick. It's the best thing you have.

Oh, fuck. Yeah. And then people are kind and sweet and loving. And I know they're trying to help, but it gets overwhelming. It's all well meaning. And thankfully, I'm kind of past that because no one gets to shit anymore. They're back to not giving a shit. That's true.

No. Oh, Campbell seems fine. Okay, good. Let's move on. Well, Campbell looks better than it. Maybe this is. publicity stunt you know this is hey well what's the joke i finally got to use it if i if i had known that i was going to get all this free publicity i would have gotten cancer a long time right

no i'm going to cash in on this shit i'm not lying oh my god if i get the sympathy ticket hey bring it let's go see the guy let's go see the guy that we might never see again you know i when I came up there, what I remember is just like, what I loved is how much laughter. It was just nonstop laughs. And I love making you laugh. And you're, you know, you're not easy to make laugh. Hey, man. I never, I never thought that having Michael McDonald asked me for butter as my neighbor,

you doing that would be, I've never laughed that hard in my life. Dude, you, so we were just talking about. Have you done it on your show? Have you done Michael McDonald's? Well, we were talking about Michael McDonald's up at Bruce's and we're like, what if Michael McDonald was your neighbor? And I was like, could I have a little margarine? Right. That's just how he talks.

We laughed so freaking hard. And by the way, another thing about, you know, Ida. Or complaining about your dog. Watch of talk about your dog, pooch. My dog barked on the floor. Do you have resolve? Why is that funny? I don't know.

And by the way, it's only funny because I have cancer. It's only funny because you have cancer. If I was being clear, man, I'd be flipping your ass off right. But I hope Michael McDonald hears that. And I hope he leaves a voice message for you with that as a neighbor, singing something about a recipe for margaritas or something. If I got a call from Michael McDonald's your reach is what? You reach like, you have like hundreds of followers.

Billions, billions, billions of followers. Yeah, me and are you big in France? Like, do you have that sort of thing? I think we are. We have an audience in France. It's a small, small audience. Ah, merci beaucoup. Was it very gente.

Do you speak French? A petit poor. That's about it. That's about it. Do you, like, during this time, you're promoting your movie. Is there that thought, if somebody offered you a role or somebody wants you in a movie, would you do it? Man, I ruined myself. I did. I got ruined in stages in my career. New Zealand ruined me a little bit.

It taught me about efficiencies because the New Zealand crew members want the quality of life. They want to go home and have a nice meal, have a couple of beers and hang with their friends. So they taught me a little bit about the quality of life. I've made a movie in France. That ruined me a little bit because they don't have the work hours. They have wine at lunch. Everything's a little more chill. And that ruined me a little bit. And then just I made a couple of movies that were sort of my own, man with the screaming brain.

My name is Bruce. And not really mine, sort of mine. They gave me a little hints. But so finally, being able to do this has just been a godsend, but it ruined me at the same time. because now I don't want to do things

I don't want to make movies the way other filmmakers make it even if they're talented because look I've complained in my brain for a long time as an actor about inefficiencies

of why you doing this and why I'm doing that I don't want to be that guy I don't want to morph into the shaking my fist in my day we were more efficient I'm already that guy

I don't want to be that guy anymore. I don't want to be on a film set where that a director is still trying to get their footing. I like the crusty old directors who are... Know what they want, know what they're doing, no... Very sure of themselves.

You know, I'm going to join another competing podcast in the fall of Jonathan Franks. Yeah. I love Franks. Franks got the idea to do a podcast for me. Of course he did. But he's a great example of a old school director. Brilliant. Tons of experience.

Love him. Knows how to get his day. And look. Nice is good. I understand the process of hiring new directors, new people, men, women, disadvantaged people, people of color. But I would still have more of a training process. Yeah, bring new people in. Absolutely.

The DGA used to have a trainee. The unions had trainees. Experience, experience, experience. And that Shmendrick would watch the old guy and go, I like this, I don't like this. And they would take notes. We don't have the training anymore. So we're getting new people thrust. These are bright people, a lot of them, but they're thrust into this experience.

And directing a television show is not for the faint of heart. And it's not for people without experience. You've done years of television yourself. When you get a stiff, man, it really slows the show. And when you get a pro, you go, oh, thank God. So the problem is I would wind up saying no to 98% of these scenarios just because of the setup. Like I got an offer not too long ago to be in a Western. Be like a Commander Sheldrich in a Western.

One day, one day for X amount of dollars. So old Bruce, man, let's. go. Where? New Mexico? Yeah, whatever. Cool, man. Get to put on this outfit, sit on a horse, run around and let's shoot for a day. Yeah, let's do it. Old Bruce goes, I know what's going to happen. I know what that one day is going to be like. That one day is going to be a shit fight because they're going to have 12 pages they want to shoot of me to maximize me for the day. They can keep cutting back to my character for the whole movie if they shoot the hell out of me, which they will. So your day is going to be a shit fight.

With the director you don't know, with crew that you don't know, with every department head that you don't know, your fitting will take place over the course of about five hours, not two or three days to get your outfit. Just right. There's going to be no rehearsals because they're moving too quick. You think about everything right now. Yeah. You're like not worth it. Every aspect to it. And you go, no, thank you.

I got an offer from a first-time director, sci-fi action stunts. I read it. Big fat part, but a lot of it is, come on, let's go, get down now,

exclamation point. I mean, it's all hero talk. Singular monosyllabic shit. I go boring, boring, boring, boring. Then I go, okay,

has this guy ever directed? No, he's a writer. He's never set foot on a set. So he's not only not directed, he doesn't even know, how a film set operates from when you show up. I had these guys give me notes when we're getting marks on the floor.

I'm like, this is not the time to give me acting notes, sir. Sorry, you'll figure this out. So I don't want to be in anybody's school. I don't want to help teach anybody. You've worked too hard. You've done enough where it's your time. I don't like my time to be wasted anymore. And I don't want to be that guy anymore.

So I know that I won't waste my own time. if I'm on my own set. And I will tell you that the snottyest thing that I did is I made my movie. Because I got to make my movie stylistically however I want. All right. So script supervisor would come up to you, right? Scene 32, Michael. It's now, you know, scene 32 is 809 a.m.

Right. They hand it back to you. Okay, you put it on. You do that scene. An hour later, script supervisor comes up. scene 52. It's 919. And I would always go, this doesn't matter. Why are you doing this?

No one cares about my watch. If we're looking at my watch, we're all in trouble. And we would laugh about it. And they'd still have to do it because that's their job. But I'm not going to tell a script supervisor to not do their job. Right. So I would suffer through that for decades. And now I went, ladies gentlemen,

I'm not touching my watch for the whole movie. If you see me, my hand is over the steering wheel of the car and he's doing his blah-de-blah, blah, blah. You see that it's 12 o'clock. That's when we shot that shot. So to me, when I get bored watching my own movie, that's what I'm going to be looking for. I'm going to be looking for what time did I shoot that shot? And sometimes I go, oh, 1130. Can we get that before lunch.

Weird. Okay. I'm like, oh, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. God, I guess it took a while to get that shot. You know, so those are the dumb games that you play. Because filmmakers, you know this, they have adopted ways that they film. They start with what's known as the wide shot, the master, where you light the whole room. Yep.

Then we're going to move in closer over an actor's shoulder to the guy. Then we're going to move in and do the close-up last. So if you've got a TV show like in Miami, for example, you shoot the master coming closer. By the time they get to your close-up, your face is melting to the floor. You're sweating through all of your outfit. Your makeup needs a complete redo. So why not do the opposite? I always say that.

Why not shoot our- It's the Russian method. Yeah. The Russian method is if you know the blocking, you know where that actor is. You start with the close-up. So guess what? You have to light this little tiny area. You have to light a face.

And you're fresh as a daisy. Yeah. I'm close up ready, baby. Ready to go. Now move back a little bit. Over the guy, the action's shoulder. Now we're wider. Let's light a little more.

And now you need a little powder. Sure. Because you've been shooting. And then when you're done with all that shit, go to the wide. Now you go wide. And if you're late and you're behind, then you don't spend too much time on that master. But now the master, you light everything. Now the guy's face is melting off, and it doesn't matter because now you're on the watch.

So I got our camera man to do it once on burn notice. One day, I said, his name was Bart, great camera guy. Bart, let's go Russian one day. Just do my favor. He goes, what's that? So we talked about it. He did it for one day. And I go, Bart, how was it?

At the end of the day, he goes, eh, it was a mind fuck. It was a mind fuck. We're used to seeing everything, seeing less, seeing less. And in my opinion, I don't care how that practice was enabled over that 100-year period. I don't, you can't make me like it. Right? I don't care if Eisenstein did that. I love it.

I like the Campbell method. I like the Campbell method too. All right, look, this is. Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if, like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if.

Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Well, patron, I didn't get to the questions. Patron questions, there was an error, but I have some rapid-fire questions for you. Let's go, baby. What's a regret you still think about?

I wasn't around a lot when my kids were young. I was working. Yeah. And, you know, I don't think that was spectacular for them. We're pretty good now. I have good relationships with my children. but, you know, I think they're like, you know, I wasn't like a drunk or an asshole that I remember, but I wasn't around a lot. What's the biggest misconception people have about you?

That I like horror movies. Sounded music is my favorite movie. Really? That I saw at the Redford, my hometown theater, in 70 millimeter brand new restored print. Let me tell you, pal, you would wet yourself if you were in that audience. It was so fantastic of an experience. The audience laugh. And then immediately shut up because they didn't want to miss a word.

With the sound of Campbell. The sound of music, baby. What part of getting older has surprised you the most? Shit breaks down. It really does. Then I couldn't just keep rolling right along. When I was 50, I fought a stunt guy on burn notice and pulled a hamstring. That was the first time my body had any kind of breakdown in 50 years.

So I'm like, all right, I guess I hit my expiration date. Yeah. They always say, let the. stunt guys do or stunt women, stunt people? I do a lot. I do a lot, but this is one of those dumb times. Hey, let's go one more time. When that was it?

When did you realize success doesn't actually solve most of your problems? Oh, pretty quick. Pretty quick. I think when I got divorced the first time because it went, oh, crap, the career was starting to go, but the marriage took a dive. Ah, shit. So that's when I realized there was collateral damage. I was gone enough to kind of make the mother of my children to make her heart just go a little cold.

I just kind of witnessed it by just lack of presence in her life. We didn't have the knockdown, drag-out fights. We weren't nasty or mean. But when you're just not apart for months and months, while I'm raising money for some stupid jackass movie, I can't blame her. It got old. that got old. Yeah.

If you could relive one year of your life exactly as it happened, what year would you choose? None of it. Because my memory, my wife says, you only remember the good stuff. You never remember the bad stuff.

Because somebody said, I was thinking about doing maybe a Bubba Hotep sequel to the movie. We hadn't really figured out of script, but I was thinking conceptually. And Ida goes, are you kidding me? I go, what are you talking about?

about that that experience was fine she goes you were miserable when you made that movie you complained every single day i'm like did i so i don't think i'd want to relive anything because it would not be how i remembered it it would be worse than i remembered it because i always remember things better like the first evil dead oh yeah that shoot was so bad it was challenging no no no that shoot was a nightmare from beginning to end i should read my own book whenever i forget i remember a conversation we had when I was up there about like, because you're like, I was like, you, even Sam or Ted, if you guys ever have disagreements and, you know, you're, you know, and, you know, you go, yeah, of course, of course, you know, we're best friends.

We, you know, and I go, what, what's one? And you told me, I won't bring it up. But it was like, it was like something that you were like, I don't like this scene or I don't like this moment. And, you know, you guys kind of went and you finally said, fine, but I don't agree with it. Right. But best partnership. We had, we had to learn that. There were me, Rob Tapper, Sam Ramey on the first evil dead. Three is a good number, by the way. You don't have stalemates because you can always, it's always two against one. Yeah, but then you resent both.

Well, but Sam and I would always go, you and me against Rob. We would all team up against Rob, like on purpose. Have you ever turned down something and immediately regretted it? I've never actually regretted it because I thought my criteria was sound for turning stuff down. Like it just, it didn't seem like it was right. It didn't seem, you know, a lot of stuff I turned down, I go, this dialogue could be interchangeable with any character on the page. There was nothing special about the dialogue.

My character doesn't do anything to advance the story. My character doesn't kill anyone, change things, save the day. And a lot of times I'd say to my agent, I got, I got nothing. These guys have given me to near. I should be, this is an infomercial. I always say, I've told you this before, but in a lot of people, most people agree with me, that you were Jim Carrey before Jim Carrey. Well, yeah, but Jim Carrey was more from a comedic content.

Sure. But your physical comedy in Evil Dead 2 in the things you did, it was ahead of time. Yeah, the comedy came more from a guy trying to do ridiculous stuff to survive, like cutting off his own hand. Sure, but your physical comedy is rare. That's more of a byproduct, though. Right. With Jim Carrey. I mean, he's brilliant. He wants to be funny going in with Ash.

He's not trying to be funny. This plate is trying to knock him out with him. his hand. He's trying to stop it. Yeah, but if it's funny, I think it's more because it's absurd. You don't have guys beating themselves up that often. I mean, give me back my hand kind of thing. Yeah, well, I beat him. I beat Jim Carrey by a few years, but I would also not say Jim was trying to imitate him. No, no, no, no, I didn't say that. Yeah, he's a very unique performance. Yeah, he's great. You spent your whole career playing heroes, smart asses, survivors, larger than life characters. When the camera's off, who are you?

Hopefully a good neighbor. I actually want to be the neighbor where a guy comes over. He goes, hey, Campbell, what's going on? Oh, hey, I have a problem with my phycus. Yeah, really? Let me take a look at it. Hey, come on back here. Hey, you want an iced tea?

Yeah, I'll take an ice tea. Well, you mean Michael McDonald, your neighbor? That's exactly right. Him offering me ice tea. Hey, Bruce, I see you painting your fence. You need a brush. Notice he didn't offer to help. No way.

He's busy. He's jumping to the studio to go, this is it. And I think they'd be surprised, like, the carpenters are my favorite. That's my favorite kind of music. Like, I'm not a headbanger, like, at all. When I hear head banging music, I go, this is for people who have mental problems. Carpenter's favorite carpenter's song. It's a something coming down on creation.

Yeah. I'm on top of the world looking down at creation. Yeah. My dad had just gotten a stereo system where when you tuned it right, the red light would go on. on the tune bar. And that meant you were tuned in. And he had headphones that you could inflate to fit your head perfectly.

It had adjustable top and bottom. My dad was an ad guy, so he liked his tech stuff. So he brought this new stereo system home and with these headphones. And I tuned in and I hit the Carpenter's was the very first song I ever tuned in stereo. And I fell in love with Karen Carpenter and wet myself just a little bit.

And by the way, what a drummer. Hey, cheesy as hell, I don't care. Look, I love Lawrence Welk. Cheeziest entertainment you're going to find on this planet. Give me Bob and Sissy any day. That's what practice gets you. I'm so pleased in Ernie and Emma, I bought the rights to a Lawrence Welk clip. And Lawrence Welk is in my movie.

You did it. I'm so excited. You're Frank Sinatra, man. You really did. You really did it your way. Every filmmaker gets to do that. I am no anomaly, but you've got to figure out how to get the money independent from people who are experts. Well, I'm talking about the naysayers.

I'm talking about the filmmakers who call themselves filmmakers who say, I'm going to make a movie or that's a piece of shit. I could do better. I could do this. But you know what? Until you make a movie, get it made, you don't have the right to say that. Oh, well, to naysayers, I say try it. Try it. Try it.

No, no, no. Make one. Make one movie. Just make a movie. The guy talking to himself in a room. Just make 90 minutes of that. Just even try that. And then, you know, you're at least like a filmmaker.

Yeah. And look, the thing I try and impress on filmmakers now is in the 70s, you had to go to a laboratory. You had to buy the footage from Kodak. You had to get insurance for the camera. A real cameraman had to use the Aeroflex camera. Now, you know, for about $5,000, you can buy a digital camera. you can get all the software you need. You can get a terabyte of storage on your computer.

Vinyl cut. I mean, the excuses for being able to make a movie now have plummeted. You can get you and your buddies, go in your backyard and butt crack Kansas. The lights, you know, the lights are this big now. These little teeny lights, little teeny microphones, little teeny everything. It's still fucking hard. Well, you have to have a thing called attention span because what is your story? First of all, what is your story?

And why not to take advantage of butt crack Kansas? What, what, did something take place in buttcrack Kansas? Some crazy minstrel show go off rails. Some disease happening. Something no one could explain. You know, whatever, work it out. Michigan is full of all kinds of strange lore. We have our own version of Bigfoot, you know.

Yeah. So tell your story. Tell your story. But tell your story, figure out how you want to tell it, and then tell it how you want to tell it. And don't try and imitate another movie. If you're going to put up your own money for a movie, don't imitate somebody because the whole purpose is to do your crap.

Don't be Sam Ramey. Everyone loves being Quentin Tarantino. You know, I'm the coolest, hippest filmmaker on the planet. Look at me. Why? Why? Let Quentin be Quentin. There's only one Quentin. We were all influenced from certain people.

Like, I love Sandler. I love, there's certain things that I love. So when I made my little movie back in the day, I was like, I wanted to have all these things that I love, all these things that I, that make me laugh, that sense of humor that but still made it my own. And, you know, the best thing that ever happened was Sandler called me one day. And I thought it was a joke. Right. Hey, how you doing, buddy? I go, hey, he was like, it's Adam.

Adam Sandler. I go, fuck off. Come on, dude. he's like oh buddy buddy it's it's it's it's Adam you know he's like listen I saw the trailer for you a movie and whatever like can you bring it to me can I watch it I want to watch it with the wife and I said yeah I went down to happy Madison I handed it in the disc and he's like oh buddy thanks man I can't believe would you make this for I go nothing and this little raunchy comedy I go and you were like you know you're a big influence and he calls me back the next day

my wife and I loved it and he started talking about the scenes and that that was that was that everything to me. It didn't matter about the success, really. You know, he's, he's, he is his own brand of filmmaker. And I think he's one of these guys that don't mess with too much. Yeah. I think his movies are always very, um, reasonably budgeted. Yep. And he doesn't seem like, uh, captain's screaming pants. So he people work, he works with his buddies all the time. Yeah, I love that too. I love pretty good setup. And I, you know, they shoot hoops. They get all their trailers, circle the wagons, and they have a recreation center in the middle of it. These guys have a good time.

Oh, yeah, and they make a movie, you know, on the side. That's just a dream job. Ernie and Emma, it's going to be in theaters at Alamo all across the States. When do you think it will come out streaming? They should go see it, but do you have any idea? I'm going to try and exhaust the theatrical type of first. A couple of years ago, I toured in 22 cities with a game show, and none of which were these Alamo draft house.

cities. So what I'm very tempted to do is when that run is done in November, take a little break for the holidays, and then in the spring hit another 25 of these grand old palaces, go back to all of them. I have a live appearance rep who can book these things. So I'd be very happy to take a brand new movie to 25 new cities because the trick is, and I'm learning this as a filmmaker, with the streamers, you kind of go to them at the end. If you go to them today, they'll go, sure, here's your $12. Yes. Oh, yeah.

So I want to be able to go to them when I've had international sales, when I have, I can say I've been in 30 theatrical markets. You know, I want to get the bank loan by proving to the bank that I don't need the loan. Yeah. So I got to wait. And here's what's so awesome. Because if you're croaking and you announce that you have cancer, you don't get hired either. So I got like no job prospects other than this one. And it's a really exciting time to focus on how are modern movies sold overseas.

I know how Evil Dead was, but this is, you know, 40 years later. How are they sold overseas now? Where can I tour overseas with this movie? What will the reaction be in another country? You know, there have been movies. Evil Dead was saved. in England. We could not get a U.S. theatrical

deal in the United States. It premiered in the U.K. by a company called Palace Pictures. They thought it was wonderful. They put it out. They thought it was like a big Hollywood movie. It was second only the E.T. in those markets

in the early 80s. Then New Line Cinema in the United States went, hey, hey, it was this movie that's going on over there? They picked it up retroactively. So Ernie may not find a home in the U.S., but

France could go, Mondeau! There's a monument, fine you feet. Yeah, I love it. It may be a classic in Italy. I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing. And if you go to all these places and you're going to, you know,

let me know, like the cities and I'll come join you one night. Well, I will. And also, overseas and you've toured over there as well, I haven't been there in probably five years or so. So it's time to do a little fresh touring because Evil Dead was born in England. So I owe a trip to good old London. I need to have a screening of this in London.

And if they have to have a double bill with Evil Dead, great. I'm showing my move first. Hey, get the hell out of there. Well, look, man, this was awesome. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me today, sir. Buddy, it's always easy to talk to you. You're a delight.

What do you got plan for the day, the rest of the day? Today is, I'm going to the Elks. I'm a proud Elks member. I've been there. I went with you. I think 17 years now, I've been an elk member. I was Elk of the year last year. And what does that mean, by the way?

It just means you gave money to the Elks. That's pretty much. So later today, I'm going to go have my Heineken Zero at the Elks. They have Heineken Zero, so I'm a big fan of that. And I'm going to play pool on a really cool old pool table down. stairs with a couple local bodies. And I might ride my brand new tricycle, my e-tricycle. Your three-wheeler? Yep, because part of my whack-a-mole was I had some back issues. And until my back improved,

I thought, I got to have a better bicycle scenario. Yeah. Three-wheel thing gives me the stability when I pull up to a stop sign. I don't have to get off. I just stay right there. And I tell you, it's paid for itself already. I've got to. I go. I go. I go. I go. I don't know. I'll have to be. I've gone over 100 miles on that sucker so far since I bought it. Ernie and Emma. I can't wait for you to see this. I can't wait for you to tell me what you think. I think you're going to love it.

Coming soon. In September, we're starting in Los Angeles. Oh, I'll be there. And I will post all of those dates once the tickets become available once they drop. Well, I can't wait. I'm proud of you. I'm pumped. You got to give Ida a big kiss for me.

I really like, I never really spent time with her. But like this time, you know, she's easy to fall. love with. Yeah, well, hands up, buddy. Yeah, all right. Fine. All right, you be good. I'll see you later. Right now, for a limited time, everyone's part of the Buick team, even you. Buick's employee pricing for you event is on now. Get a purchase credit of up to $3,168 on a 2026 Buick Envision. Surround yourself with signature Buick refinement from an available massaging driver's seat to an expansive panoramic moonroof and a stunning ultra-wide 30-inch diagonal screen. Don't Buick's employee pricing for you event. Visit buick.ca for more details.

Yeah, man, I, I teared up. I teared up. He teared up. Men with feelings. That's what this podcast is about. It's okay to have feelings. It's okay to feel and emote. I know you just rebranded, but is it too late to change everything to just call it men with feelings? This is men with feelings, Michael Rosenbaum. Men on feelings. Men on feelings? Feeling men? Feeling men. men and then I get sued I couldn't do this without you guys

the patrons especially the patrons who support this podcast are getting their name shat it out after I take a drink of water okay here they are Nancy D little Lisa Eukiko Nico P

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I don't know. I hope so. That's my theory. Keith B. Heather and Greg. Heather and Grether. Grether. Pierre C.

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It is the fifth. Yeah. Julie F. Julie F. It's better than Julie F's. Well, yeah. Yeah, Julie F. Julie May F. We don't know. J. She might F. We don't know. Nobody knows.

Jay, Wayne, P. And Merritt. Couldn't do this without you. We love you. Thank you for being here today. And again, if you like the podcast, write a review, subscribe, join Patreon, patreon.com slash inside of you. And from the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood, California, I am Michael Rosenbaum.

He is. I am Ryan Taze. A little wave to the camera. It's a beautiful thing. Be good to yourself. We'll see you next week.