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Elvis Himselvis battles evil in ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’
February 2004 – Bruce Campbell is the most famous face you’ve never known. In some circles, however, his chiseled jaw line is perhaps only slightly less well known than Jay Leno’s and Stan Laurel’s. He has appeared in over 40 films, and is known to countless fans as the undead-butt-kicking Ash from longtime pal Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy.
In his latest film, Bubba Ho-Tep, Campbell plays — rather, Campbell is — Elvis Presley. But this is no generic biopic: Campbell plays an elderly, ailing Elvis Presley who must save the residents of his East Texas rest home from a soul-hungry Egyptian mummy. With the help of JFK, no less. Who’s black (and played by the great Ossie Davis).
Bruce, whose best-selling autobiography is called If Chins Could Kill, was generous enough to take the time to chat with me, and good-humored enough to not hang up when I joked about auctioning his cell phone number on eBay.
What do you do to prepare for a role this huge?
How do you play an old guy? I guess that 2 1/2 hours of makeup helps you get into the “rest home frame of mind”. To tap into the King’s humanity, it has to be there in the script. You have to make a lot of those decisions with the director, too; it’s a joint decision. [Phantasm director] [Don] Coscarelli hasn’t gotten his due. We were all on the same page, and that helps — having a partnership with the director.
50,000,000 Elvis fans can’t be wrong, but they’re not all going to like “Bubba Ho-Tep”. Do you have any words of advice to those purists – or just regular folks, in general – so they might better enjoy it?
They’ve just gotta be patient and get through the first 15 minutes. It’s pretty hardcore, but they need to stick with it. They will hopefully see that this guy is going to get it together, and that he is not going to be remorseful through the whole movie. If they care about Elvis at all, they’ll want to pull for him.
What will surprise your fans the most about “Bubba Ho-Tep”?
That I’m in a movie with a story [chuckles]. Hopefully, they’ll be OK that it’s not a cheeseball, hack-n-slash gorefest. It’s more like “Grumpy Old Ghostbusters”. If they can come away with that, they’ll be fine.
What was your first reaction to Don Coscarelli’s script?
It was the weirdest I’d ever read, bar none, but I enjoyed the tone of it. I knew that if we didn’t walk that line just right, the movie wouldn’t work. What appealed to me most is that it was really not a horror movie. It had a hidden underlying story of usefulness and aging. I liked the fact that even though it was outrageous, it depicted a nice relationship between Elvis and Jack Kennedy, and it was not mean-spirited at all.
Did you take away anything from this shoot that you weren’t expecting?
I came away with strengthening of my initial inclination that all “A” movies are not necessarily good, and “B” movies are not necessarily bad. If you’re heart’s in the right place, your chances of making a good movie are so much better. Don made that effort, and it shows. I would have liked to have come away with the jumpsuit, but they are made by just one company, the same one that made them when Elvis was still alive.
Have you produced any special content for the DVD yet?
Not yet, though we plan to record a commentary track with “Elvis” and the “Memphis Mafia”. We are very lucky to have a [indie] studio like Vitagraph behind us — that was a real coup. A studio like Paramount wouldn’t know what to do with the movie. It wouldn’t have the cancer bit or the whole subplot about JFK. A major studio would have insisted we “smooth out the edges”.
What question do you find yourself fielding publicly most often?
Will there be an Evil Dead 4?” and lately, “Will Ash fight Freddy and Jason?” I would have no reason to get involved in that franchise unless Ash can kick both of their butts. That would have to be contractual. Another rumor I hear a lot is that I’m going to be in Phantasm 5 [perpetuated by an IMDB.com entry]. I’d love to do it, but they would have to raise some dough to shoot it in the epic way that Don has envisioned it.
How is a publicity tour for a book different for that of a movie?
It’s almost the opposite. The book must be in stores before the tour, while publicity for a movie starts as the movie opens. With a book, there’s no pre-hype, but it’s way more relentless. You’re lucky to be able to rest for two hours at your hotel before you’re paraded out. A 55 city tour is almost enough to make you not want to do it again.
Typically, you fly in, do 3 or 4 cities in a row, driving most of day, you dump your stuff in a hotel, sleep for 5 hours and then do it all over again. It’s a seemingly neverending string of not eating right and “Where Am I’s?” Everything blends together.
Your next book: “Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way” — it’s not about what the title might suggest, right?
Not at all. “Thank God it’s fiction,” is what I tell people.
Do you accept the title “King of the B’s” with a certain degree of reluctance, or do you embrace it wholeheartedly?
It depends on the day [laughs]. When the theaters are packed, I love B movies. Generally, I have enjoyed most working on movies you wouldn’t see on an airplane, the ones that aren’t “acceptable and generic”. I didn’t get a job working at IBM for a reason. I enjoy the freedom of working on a film like Bubba that is funded with private money, not by a Fortune 500 company masquerading as an indie, and you’re not going to get any more indie than Bubba, unless your Dad finances it. g
Bruce Campbell’s website is www.brucecampbell.com, and you can learn more about Bubba Ho-Tep at www.bubbahotep.com.
