Ash vs Evil Dead: Bruce Campbell – Ash is the Bob Hope of horror
In an interesting and in-depth chat with Beth Accomando of Cinema Junkie Podcast on KPBS out of San Diego, the star of Ash vs Evil Dead, Bruce Campbell discusses how Ash is the Bob Hope of horror.
“I can still chase women, only downhill.” – Bob Hope
Classic Icons
Recently, Bruce Campbell appeared on Cinema Junkie Podcast to talk about his New York Times bestselling memoir, Hail to the Chin. Anyone who is a fan of Bruce knows that he possesses an abiding love of classic movies and celebrities.
When he is on set in between scenes according to his Ash vs Evil Dead castmates he is an avid reader. Of particular interest to him are biographies of luminary figures in show business. At New York Comic Con’s BUILD series, he stated that he was reading, Full Service by Scotty Bowers.
So, when he mentioned Bob Hope’s movie persona and his character of Ash Williams having similar type personalities, I didn’t even bat an eye. Since I am also a movie buff and lover of celebrity bios, I could see the correlation between the two. It made perfect sense!
Most people know of Bob Hope as the comedian who did the holiday specials or entertained the troops. However, he was actually a popular movie star in the 1940s making several “Road” pictures with his good friend, Bing Crosby.
Another lover of classic cinema, Seth MacFarlane has done parodies of these movies on Family Guy featuring Brian and Stewie. One of my personal favorites of Mr. Hope was Cancel My Reservation from 1972.
The Connection
Hope’s persona in a film like Road to Morocco is the guy who tries to do as little as possible but through some colossal blunder in the case of this movie, he blows up a ship because he was smoking in the powder room.
That sets off a crazy chain of events that causes him and his pal Bing to have to outwit a jealous ex-lover and all sorts of potential mishaps. Now, think back to the very first episode of AVED, El Jefe. Ash is just a guy who is trying to do as little as possible at Value Mart.
Through a gigantic mistake on his part, Ash reads the Necronomicon while high to score with a chick thus resurrecting an ancient, dormant evil. You see where I am going with this?
In Campbell’s words, “I liked Hope’s persona in that he was kind of an idiot. He would get himself into problems and then he would have to talk his way out of them and not doing it very well. So, I guess I just got used to seeing his double talk and you could tell he was adlibbing a lot.”
“And I was like yeah, that’s the kind of character that I like playing. Of course, on Ash vs Evil Dead, Ash is really sort of Bob Hopeish. He’s talking his way out of situations that he created.”
When asked if AVED was like a Road movie, Campbell replied, “Yeah, it’s like an underrated Road movie. That’s all it really is.”
Next: Ash vs Evil Dead: Bruce Campbell does last minute questions blitz at BUILD
Have you ever seen a Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road film? Do you agree with Bruce’s assessment of Ash’s persona? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below. We want to hear from you!