Bruce Campbell at San Diego Comic Con! Part two
Bruce Campbell at San Diego Comic Con! Part two
Check out part one of the Round Table interview here!
Q: “We get a great glimpse of Lucy Lawless’ character in the trailer, what can you tease about her character and the dynamic?”
A: “Well Lucy, Ruby is her character’s name, and Ash are contrarians, she thinks Ash is responsible for all this and he begs to differ. They have to figure it all out or someone’s going to die (emphasizing in Lucy Lawless’ direction) of course I’m not married to the director so maybe it will be Ruby vs Evil Dead in the second season. She’s been a great addition because Lucy can bring it, there’s actors who can bring it and actors who don’t know how to bring it and bring it means ‘give me the stuff, give me the goods that people want to see, give me the attitude’ ya know? She’s a great actress, she’s very striking and she’s awesome to have. We’re lucky to have her. I demanded it! I did, I’m demanding Ted Rami for season 2!”
Q: “First fight sequence that you shot, how did that compare to recollections of shooting the trilogy.”
A: “Well AoD was our version of The Vikings, it was a big adventure epic. So that was its own beast. This is more mano a mano with demons so we cranked the dial back a little bit, it’s a little bit more old school, shot gun and fist fights, fighting dirty, trash talking a lot of that.”
Q: “Is there a central villain in the series like there was in AoD?”
A: “Those will come and go because it’s a TV show, so you might have them. This is peeling an onion, now that the evil is walking the Earth again. They come in many shapes and forms. Once the word gets out we’ll start to get some really good actors. We had Mimi Rogers who came out for this one character and she was just awesome. We need to get more people like her who can come in and do these really good character arcs. This is the only show where actors can be killed twice. You show up as a character, then you get killed, then you come back to play a possessed creature, then you get killed again! I think there’s some actors who’d be like ‘Fuck yeah, you get to get killed twice and play a monster.’ Actors, they fantasized about playing different things a cowboy, a soldier, a lawyer, a president, and some people being a demon they think that’d be really fun. Mimi Rogers was awesome because she’s so sweet; we needed her character to begin sweet but Ash’s character is convinced that something is off with her and she’s being ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ and then it changes. So we hope to get some good actors and do those arcs. That’s how you get people, you offer them good stuff to do. I know how to get an actor, get ‘em good shit to do.”
Q: “Can you tell us a bit about your co-stars?”
A: “Yeah, they have comedy backgrounds, neither of them have been in an episodic as a regular character so (it’s been) a big learning curve for them, but thankfully they’re young and supple and they can figure it out. They both are, I think, having a really good time. We’re happy to have them. Ash can’t do everything, and Jill Marie Jones is also on that list, she plays a state trooper. So, you have to round it out it’s an ensemble. It’s not just Ash, you can’t have that in TV format. You can’t have him mumbling to himself for the whole series.”
Q: “What’s the episode length?”
A: “It’s 10, 30 minute long episodes.”
Q: “Was there any discussions to make it longer?”
A: “Nope, this was Rob’s brilliant idea. He was like ‘Let’s make it a half hour.’ We all said ‘What?’ he goes ‘Yeah, it makes sense. That way you keep the humor, the pacing, and you don’t have to grind the progression of your story to a halt. This show is going to go so buckle up and hang on cuz it’s going! Just when you look at your watch it’s over. With modern day attention spans I think it’s also a good call too.”
Q: “Was 10 episodes a decided upon length as well?”
A: “We don’t determine that, you’ll have to talk to the people who now make television. It has gone from 22 to 13 they used to do 44 ya know? Gun Smoke they used to just keep shooting Melrose Place they would do 35 of them in a season. Nobody liked soap operas that repeated, you have to keep giving them new material to succeed. Now 10 seems to be the new 22, I don’t know why but it seems to be pretty standard now.”
Q: “It’s probably better than stretching the story out.”
A: “Well you just have to have enough story to tell. We have to be prepared to go 5 seasons. We do! Our show runner/writers have to be prepared for that, they have to have a plan; otherwise we’re stuck.”
Q: “Is there only one storyline for all 10 episodes or do we have different story lines?”
A: “There are different story lines, there’s a through line that carries you through the whole 10 episodes but each one get resolved. You have to have some sense of accomplishment, ya know?”
Q: “What can you tell us about the Deadites and the special effects with them?”
A: “A lot of old school, a little new school, some medium school. We pump blood the old fashioned way. We have a keg of blood that comes in, like an actual beer keg. We just call it the keg, it’s a high pressure delivery device.”
Via STARZQ: “What’s the blood made out of?”
A: “There’s all different kinds of blood. Good of you to ask that question! Wardrobe department has a blood that’s made out of a highly sugary content and it becomes cotton candy. It freezes and it dries and it looks wet and they have all different colors so if you get in a dark set they have blood that’s a brighter blood so it will show. Then if you get in lighter sets they use a darker blood and they use a different blood for the face, we probably use, I’d say, four or five different types of blood. To pump blood through a tube it has to be thinner you can’t have this thick syrupy, it will gum up all your crap. We have blood we have to pump through my chainsaw my functioning chainsaw and it goes into the blade and the blood comes flying off the end of the blade, it’s a spectacular array. These guys have really got this shit figured out it’s awesome. There’s a lot of blood rigs!”
Q: “So there’s a lot of blood?”
A: “A lot of blood! Why would we do Evil Dead without blood? And Starz is the perfect home we could not do this show how we wanted to without Starz because they have no restrictions.”
Q: “With sex and profanity as well?”
A: “Nothing, we can say any word we want! Evil Dead has never been a sexy show, there’s not a lot of butts on it, no full frontal nudity on Evil Dead. That’s not really the focus of the show but we want to be able to have the carnage that we do, disturbing makeups and everything and not have anyone hassle us. It’s really very liberating.”
Q: “ It seems as though this was the only way to do AvED properly was as a TV show?”
A: “I agree, we had a number of suitors, people who were interested in doing the show, so in our meetings with them it was like well, what creative liberties are you going to give us and what content restrictions do you have? Every single entity we met with and I wont name any of them because they’re all good people. They could not tell us that we had unrestricted content until Starz and we were like ‘Oh, let’s talk a little further’ they said the words we wanted to hear, that we would be left alone creatively and that we were not stifled as far as content and that means a lot to us. As filmmakers it’s really important.”
Q: “How long was this show in development?”
A: “It happened pretty quickly, it’s a complicated deal because of the three movies. They’re all owned by three different companies and you have to factor in a lot of legal stuff that fans don’t quite understand, Like if they don’t see certain elements included in the Evil Dead there are probably some legal issues. Not because we’re excluding the fans from something or if we’re ignoring certain story lines or characters, that will be why.”
Q: “Is there any message you want to send to fans who have been waiting for this comeback for a long time?”
A: “Yes, that it is worth the wait! We hope that it’s worth the wait, we waited too!”
Q: “How does it feel to be at Comic-Con with the trailer?”
A: “Great! Comic-Con is my home away from home, I’ve been here a dozen times, it’s the place you gotta go! Especially if you’re launching a show, gotta do the Comic Con shuffle.”
Via STARZQ: “It was awesome to see all the Ash cosplay!”
A: “We did an impromptu contest at our panel yesterday, brought four of em up. But one of them was a woman and she won cuz she was the hottest, she had Groovy on her butt!”
Q: “Are you going to incorporate that into your costume on the show?”
A: “Maybe I’m should! Get a little groovy on my butt see if anyone notices it!”
Q: “Is Groovy a catchphrase that will keep coming up in the show?”
A: “It may be something that comes up among many other new ones?”
Q: “Can you give us a preview?”
A: “Hell no!”
Q: “So it’s going to be as quotable? People drop lines from AoD all the time.”
A: “I can’t give those away! You would have to give me $1,000 to get that. In cash!”
Want more San Diego Comic Con and Ash vs Evil Dead news? Keep it locked to Three if By Space!
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