Bruce Campbell says it’s boring to play doctors, lawyers and cops on screen. He talks about his television projects and admiration for filmmaker Sam Raimi
Burn Notice has entered into its seventh season. Audience’s admiration only seems to be growing.
Absolutely, it’s always rewarding to be on a show that doesn’t bomb (laughing). Actors have always been in movies that bomb or TV shows that get cancelled after three episodes, and so yeah, it makes up for quite a lot that we’ve been on the air successfully for seven seasons. It’s very gratifying; it’s one of the best things that could happen to an actor.
Are you thinking this is going to be the final seasonIJ
Yes, they’ve announced that this season is going to be the concluding one.
Do you think it’s a good idea to cut out while things are still going strongIJ
Well, you know we do everything we can to entertain the audience, and the fact that we always get the bad guys is what keeps them tuning in. I think people like something that makes them feel good, not bad. And hopefully that’s what our show does.
Have you enjoyed playing the character of SamIJ
It’s been fantastic. It’s been probably one of my favourite characters ever to play. Because when you play a character for multiple years, you get to know them very well, and when a director or writer tells you to do something, you can look at them and go, “No, I wouldn’t do that, I would do this.” We become self-directed after a while.
Is a lot of this show made on location in MiamiIJ
Yeah, the entire show is filmed in Miami. We’re the only one of those Miami shows that is actually filmed there. I will not have any problem saying goodbye to Miami whatsoever. I’m not from there, I’ve never lived in Florida, I live completely diagonally across the entire country in the state of Oregon. So, Miami is a place I never would’ve gone if it weren’t for Burn Notice (Star World Premiere). It’s a very fun city but we film during the summer and it’s incredibly hot and humid. There are certain aspects I will miss very much, like the crew members who work very hard, but I won’t miss the weather.
Have you started working on a sequel to Army of DarknessIJ
That’s all bologna right now. There’s no time table, no story, no budget, so it’s all very ethereal right now. It may happen one day, but Sam Raimi is making some of the biggest movies in Hollywood right now, so it would be very difficult…to go back to those movies. That’s one of the biggest challenges, because I’ve been working on this (show) and Sam’s been taking over Hollywood, so it’s not as easy as people might think.
How did you feel about the success of the Evil Dead updates, they were very popularIJ
We’re very gratified, because we’re approaching 95 million dollars worldwide, so yeah we’re very happy with it. It’s interesting that people still follow those movies even thirty years later. I mean, we didn’t know if anyone was going to show up at the theatre or not. I know that I have a lot of Evil Dead fans because I do a lot of conventions. But, you never know if people are still willing to lay their money down.
Will we see any more of those kinds of moviesIJ
We don’t know — we have a story that we’re preparing, but the world is all about economics, and it would be difficult to make a sequel as inexpensive as the Evil Dead remake. So if you can’t make the movie for the right price, no one will back it, because it all depends on how much it makes worldwide.
How would you compare Burn Notice with some of the other TV shows you’ve doneIJ
Well, I’m not dead yet so it’s hard to answer that question, there may be other work in the future. But Burn Notice is certainly one of the top experiences I’ve had, and one of the top characters I’ve ever been able to play. I like it because it’s not a cop show, doctor show or a lawyer show. As an actor, I tend to avoid all three of those types of shows, because I find them to be boring and dry, and in this one we can blow stuff up, we don’t have to read anybody their rights, and we don’t have to play by the rules.
After you finish work, what have you got lined upIJ
I have another project I’m developing at the same network. It’s all under wraps at this point. There’s lots of fun work ahead, and I look forward to getting into something new. I knew it was ending, you know TV shows can’t last forever, so I’ve developed a number of screenplays at the same time. So, I expect to get back into the movie business a little more as well.
You did those great cameos in the Spiderman movies, did you ever watch The Amazing Spider ManIJ
No, I wasn’t that familiar with Spider Man. But Sam was a huge fan, so he was the right guy to do those movies. I have no interest in that. If Sam’s not directing it, I ain’t watching it.