His name is Bruce, and if you ask a stupid question, you will hear him roar. Where James Marsters was down to earth and so very unlike his characters during his Q&A, Bruce Campbell comes off even larger and more grandiose than the characters he plays on screen.
From the word go, those is attendance know they are in for something special. Campbell offers five dollars to the person with the best Evil Dead tattoo, then proceeds to bring up several audience members and engages in an impromptu tattoo competition. He alternately admires and mocks the contestants. He lets the audience choose the winner, but his bias is glaringly obvious, which is all part of the fun. The five dollars goes to a young woman with a "stick figure Ash" on her leg.
Contest aside, it's Q&A time. One of the first questions out of the gate concerns Bruce vs. Frankenstein and Campbell confirms that this rumored followed to instant cult hit My Name Is Bruce is indeed being made. Riotous applause follows. Later, fans ask if he'll be involved in the new Spiderman reboot. He does nothing to hide his utter disdain, going so far as saying, "There's no reason to do a man-in-tights film without Sam Raimi," and definitively stating that if Sam's not involved, then neither is Bruce. Another fan would later ask if Raimi made a mistake dropping out of Spiderman. Again, Bruce pulls no punches, saying, "Not if they want to make it like Twilight." Oddly, I find myself wondering what Twilight would look like with Bruce and Sam and I wish more than anything for such a movie to exist.
On the subject of Sam Raimi, Campbell says, "There's nothing fun about working for Sam," but that it is the most creatively fulfilling work that he does. He talks about how physically grueling Raimi's movies can be and says this of Army of Darkness: "I wished my mother had never met my father during that movie." His blunt commentary is refreshing. "A movie that is easy to make is hard to watch," he goes on to say, and one gets that sense that as miserable as it may have been to make those movies, Campbell wouldn't trade the experience for anything. When asked if he will be part of Raimi's upcoming World of Warcraft film, Bruce quips, "Is Sam involved? Then I'll probably have some stupid part."
A handful of questions concern Burn Notice, the USA show featuring Bruce Campbell. Bruce says he is contracted to the show through seven seasons and that the show has already been renewed through Season Six. Campbell jokes about having to live and shoot in Florida, openly mocking hurricanes with the expected Campbell bravado. Campbell also confirms that there are plans to do a spin-off tv movie based on his character Sam. Again, there is much applause.
Another fan asks if he will be writing another book and he throws out the title Vagabond: The Gypsy Life of an Actor. He hasn't started writing the book yet and I almost get the sense that he made up the title on the spot.
At one point he is asked about his time in Iraq as part of a USO tour for the troops. Campbell's bravado cracks just slightly here. Though still joking and keeping the crowd energized, it's easy to see that he takes this experience seriously. He talks about going to Afghanistan next and when another fan asks if he would be willing to do something for stateside troops, he takes the request seriously and seems eager to follow up on that.
The heart of this Q&A, however, is Campbell's strange relationship with his fans. As a b-movie legend, Campbell's had his share of flops and disappointments, and fans relish asking him questions about such experiences. Campbell, in turn, takes great pleasure in mocking these fans and their questions with adoring cruelty. At one point, Campbell starts to openly heckle a female fan for asking an overly drawn out and complicated question that was really just a series of statements. This was my first experience at a Bruce Campbell panel, but I get the sense that this is really what it's all about: seeing who can ask the question that can draw the biggest insult from Bruce. He comically laments the early demise of his television shows Briscoe County and Jack of All Trades. Again, he keeps his comments light and mocking, but there is perhaps a touch of real bitterness here, too. He's something of a Hollywood outsider; it's what makes him a cult icon, but is it also why mainstream success has been elusive for him? Would he have traded in his current icon status for seven seasons of Briscoe County and an Emmy nod?
But Bruce Campbell doesn't seem to have time for regret. When asked if he would erase Congo or McHale's Navy from his resume, he replies, "Why? The checks cleared."
His name is Bruce. Any more stupid questions?
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