Bruce Campbell: And not every director works that way. I like working how I like to work. So, the only way to really do that is just do your own s--t. So, I think from here on out, I will. It's very unlikely for me to be on somebody else's film set, and I'm trying not to sound like an a----le. I just like my own thing now, and I've been ruined along the way by certain things. This project has really ruined me completely, because it's given me the freedom that I've always wanted since the first Evil Dead. We have never had this much creative freedom since the first Evil Dead. First Evil Dead was private money; they couldn't even come on set if we didn't want them to, because they had no administrative duties. We were the general partners, it says it on a piece of paper, legal document. "You're a limited partner. You're limited to what you can do. We're general partners." So, starting with our second movie, I got kicked out of the lead. They recut the whole movie. They wouldn't use Joe Loduca, on and on and on and on. And after that second movie, Crimewave, which no one has really seen because it bombed so horribly, I was like, "Oh my God, is this the business? I think this is the business." We hadn't seen the business, because Evil Dead was our poster. Sam goes, "You're going to star in it." It's his cut. There's no director's cut for Evil Dead. There's one cut. It's our cut as partners, as filmmakers. It's the one that we want. It's our logo, it's our title. We took the photograph for the poster. I mean, everything was ours. And then the second movie, nothing was ours. I have to say, it was incredibly depressing. Aside from getting kicked out of the part, that was its own wake-up call of like, "Wait, this isn't a slam dunk?" I had to audition for it. On camera, Sam shot a 16 millimeter audition, which I'd love to see. That would be gold. And they said no. They saw the audition, and they're like, "No." And I was like, "Oh my god."
So there's been this 40-year period where we've been operating in a world, even famous guys like Sam Raimi, who are very successful, have a lot of approvals of their movies. You don't control it all. So, this is the first time in 40-some-odd years that I'm crawling back into the womb. [Chuckles] That's what I call it, because that's when it was fun, and I wanted to be fun again, and I want the process to make sense. I sat in on one of these development meetings for one of these Evil Dead movies, and the director turned in a 10-page outline of, "Act One, Act Two, Act Three. This is how it might progress." And he got 20 pages of notes on the 10-page outline. I'm like, "I don't have time to sit through all this." I looked at the director about halfway through the notes, and we both started laughing. We couldn't help it. We were like, "This is so absurd." Because development people do what they do, right? No harm, no foul. You're hired to read a script and give notes. If you don't give notes, they fire you. So you're going to give notes. Not all of them are good. Some are good, many are just not appropriate or too early or whatever. So, to not have to go through that process was really fun.
We got to the point where I even think I had a crew member comment on a scene that they weren't too sure about, and I went, "Okay, I need to lock this picture, because I'm not getting any outside ideas." At one point I thought, "Let's do some test screenings at an old folks' home and a university." I had both near me, so I did a real simplified questionnaire, because I thought, "These studio ones are too obnoxious. I'm going to do a good one." And halfway through it, I went, "What are you doing? Do you really care what someone at a rest home thinks about Act Two?" [Chuckles] "Or that there's a guy at the university that goes, 'Your structure is a little weak.' Do you really care what someone who's not in your business thinks?" Because that's what they do at previews. They get unemployed people and recruit them to come and see a free movie, and then they ask them all kinds of questions. "What's your favorite scene? What's the scene you hated the most, and why? What's your favorite character? Which character did you like the least?" There are responses that can get actors cut out of movies from unemployed people at malls. That's not right. And look, [this is not a] perfect movie, not a chance, not even close. But it's my movie, and if you're in the arts, why the hell are you in the arts if you can't do your art? I really want to act how I want to act. I want to write what I want to write. I want to direct how I want to direct. It's kind of that simple. And for filmmakers, all you have to know: put up your own money. And if it's not your own, make it private. Get a private investment, find an uncle who's a banker in your family. You're going to find a banker somewhere in your family. Go talk to him. Investment guy, go talk to him. Somebody, go find a lawyer, put a thing together, because it will be the only thing that gives you freedom. And this is no aspersions on the studios, but they will not give you creative freedom, because there's too much at stake, because they put up the money. Every dollar that's higher that they put up — they put up $100 million, they're going to have 100 million reasons to be nervous. You put up a million, you're going to have a million reasons to be nervous. So, you're still going to get someone breathing down your neck, and the studios assign someone to you. And maybe they're a good assignee, but maybe they're an idiot. You can't control that, either. So, I like not being able to complain. I love to complain, and I put myself in a position where I can no longer complain. Because I would stomp around the house telling my wife, "One day, you know, one day," and she was like, "When's that happening, dude? Don't you think it should happen sooner rather than later?" I'm like, "Are you serious?" She's like, "Are you serious?" I'm like, "Yeah, I'm serious." She goes, "Then shut up and do it, but shut up." So, she was good about making me shut up.
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