My conversation with Bruce Campbell: Straight, no chaser and no agendas

Milestones and Passions – Bruce Campbell – Courtesy of Alistair Devine

Milestones and Passions

1428 Elm: Do you feel a sense of urgency to do things now? You had a milestone this year (Bruce turned 60 in June). Did that affect you at all?

BC: No. Now, I’m ready. You have to get contractual obligations out of your life before you can do other stuff.

You know half of my conversations would end with, “I’ll let you know what my plans are when I know about Ash vs Evil Dead.” I could never have a full or finally realized conversation about plans or putting things on my calendar because everything was always dedicated to that.

Which was fine because that was the priority at that time. But now I have no long-term contracts anymore and I have no intention of entering into another one.

1428 Elm: I don’t blame you. It’s tough and restrictive because you have to adhere to everything they do and everything that they want before you can do what you want to do. I’m assuming you have projects in mind that you want to take on. What are you passionate about? What story do you want to tell?

BC: Well, I have a whole bunch of stories. I have silly comedies, a drama and a western. Some tv dramas, it’s a pretty good rainbow of stuff. We’re going to see what falls off the truck.

I could end up working on the game show for a few years. The passion now is going to be homegrown. I’m tired of working with the middleman in projects now.

I don’t want to do anymore showrunners, you know what I mean? I don’t want to work on somebody else’s show, I’m done with that now.

The Urgency to Clear the Calendar Off

The-Urgency-to-Clear-the-Calendar-Off-Bruce-Campbell (Courtesy of Andrew Chin, Getty Images )

BC (Cont.): Sean Connery got to a point when he worked on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where it pissed him off so much, he just quit. He said, “You know what? This is stupid, I’m done.”

That made so much sense to me. You get to the point where you say, “I’m not doing this anymore. I’m not interested.”

In my case, everyone in show business is 22 years old now. So, I also don’t need to be on a set where everybody is learning everything the whole time again.

BC (Cont.): If I do a low budget movie? Guess what? It’s going to be my low budget movie now. No more working on anyone else’s jobs right now.

That is the urgency that I have to not delay anymore. I can always get cast in something. I’m not pursuing that anymore.

I’ll always look at stuff, I’ll always read stuff but you have to focus for an extended period of time in order to be able to write stuff, sell it, shoot it and finish it.

So, a lot of these projects are years in the making. It’s not going to happen until you can devote an extended period of time on these things. That’s all.

It’s a matter of clearing off the calendar. The calendar is clear. I’m pretty good at booking stuff.  I’ve booked a bunch of appearances for next year going to cities I haven’t done.

I have something going on almost every month, next year. But then we’ll just see what happens, you know?