So I think I passed his pussy test or something.
Cos he's like, all right!
Name's Axe.
The B movie king has had his arm cut off,
he's been attacked by giant cockroaches,
he's been sucked into a zombie anus,
and he was in Spider-Man 3.
Bruce and his world-class chin first came to fame about 3 decades ago
in the much-loved horror classic 'Evil Dead'.
Since then he's played a spy in 'Burn Notice',
Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep,
President Ronald Reagan in the last series of 'Fargo'
but he's back playing the role that launched him
in the Stan series 'Ash vs Evil Dead.'
There must be some spill I can say or do...
The other first thing I gotta do is some cardio
cos my heart is jackhammering like a quarterback on prom night.
I want to ask you about the time you met Bill Clinton.
- OK. - Bill Clinton's a massive fan of your work, I hear.
Well, it was in Miami, he was at an event raising money for Haiti.
Finally he had some parting and then the receiving line started.
And one of his guys came up to us, he knew who we were,
he goes "Hey, a little tip, go to the end of the line.
"Cos if you're at the head of the line he's gotta blow past you.
"He's not gonna stick around and shoot the ball."
We're like, he doesn't know who we are anyway.
It doesn't matter.
But we got about 20 people away and he looks over and goes
"Oh man, hey, I love your show, love your show!"
And we literally looked behind, we were like...
He's talking about somebody else, right?
And so we finally got up to meet him.
He sort of glows, all these guys are very magnetic.
Clinton supposedly, if he met you once, he knows your name forever.
So we got up there, he goes "Oh man, Sam Axe is my favourite character."
"Cos we're both over the hill warriors."
And this is when Hillary was secretary of state
and he goes "Hillary's gone all week so I watched the show,
"it's my favourite show."
And without missing a beat he goes "Where's the girl?"
Meaning Gabrielle Anwar.
And we're like "She didn't come today."
"So where's the girl" is the most Bill Clinton sentence that's ever been uttered anywhere.
Yeah.
One of the lesser known things about the 'Evil Dead' franchise,
you had a lot people who will go on to do really interesting things that worked on the film
and one of those was your assistant editor. Do you remember who that was?
Joel Coen, we met both the brothers during their time
and Joel just, he said he had the script he wanted to make...
How many times do you hear that?
We're like, yeah, blah, blah, blah,
cos he used to get us coffee and stuff like that
and Joel actually cut a really cool sequence in the movie
cos it was a tight little sequence
but he did a really nice job with that
and then he said he was gonna do this...
They wanted to do this movie called 'Blood Simple'.
So we helped him shoot that.
You also have an unusual distinction of being the only person
that is in both 'Fargo' the TV series but also you have a role
in 'Fargo' the movie which is directed by Joel and Ethan.
Exactly.
But isn't it one of those roles most people won't know about...
Where do you appear in that movie?
It's on TV in the background, it's near the end of the movie.
A guy's putting a leg in the chipper in the back yard
but the other guy's watching TV.
He's watching a crappy soap opera that I was in in the early 80s.
- This is a real crappy soap opera. - It was, yeah.
Cos the Coen brothers were like, what could be on TV?
They're trying to figure out what the criminal would be watching on TV
and my buddy was like, "I got a crappy soap opera that Bruce was in."
So I am appearing in an academy award winning movie.
What would you change about the film industry if you could change anything at all?
What would I change? The accounting.
- It's criminal. - How?
I wrote a book and when I got the first cheque I was like "There must be some mistake.
"Shouldn't I be suing you for 10 years to try and find this money
"and then you would belittle me and drag this out as long as you could and then I would give up?"
Cos that's what you do in Hollywood.
In addition to all of your other work
is it true that you're also an ordained minister?
I am an ordained minister. It's probably lapsed now.
- Somebody wanted to get married. - Right.
They wanted me to marry them specifically.
They have chosen to have you,
their undead family and friends to bear witness...
- Well, the groom was a zombie. - Naturally.
And the bride was also a zombie but she was pregnant
with a zombie baby coming out of her belly,
emerging, like screaming from her belly,
it was exploding from her belly.
These are two people getting married.
- And I remember thinking... - I love this...
This couple, they're desecrating the institution of marriage.
"Their poor family" is what I thought.
And I look over and the father of the groom,
he can't even sit down because he has a fake wooden spike
going in at one and the other is going out the other,
so I'm like, "The family are freaks, it's a freak show."
The enemy is already regretting calling you here.
Get used to that feeling.
And before I leave you, you live in Oregon,
a land filled with actual cowboys
and of course famously you did play a cowboy on TV.
How did the local cowboys of Oregon react
when they realised you'd moved in?
They're not impressed.
Real cowboys are not impressed with anyone who plays a cowboy.
- Oh really? - Oh no, no.
Could you do something to prove to them...
I had to. The guy came up my driveway the day I moved in,
in his beat up Lincoln Continental,
cos cowboys drive them for some reason.
Of course they do.
Came up my driveway and this guy gets out, he says "Hey!
"I understand you played a cowboy in a TV show."
I said "Yeah. Hi."
He goes "I want you to come this Saturday
"and help me run a hundred head of cattle up the road."
I'm like "Do you have a horse? "Yeah, I got a horse."
I go "What time do you want me there?" "8 o'clock!"
8 o'clock in the morning, got on a horse,
all the other neighbours were there too.
And they were helping block driveways and whatever.
The cows knew where to go, they were following a feed truck.
I literally blocked one driveway.
"Yaahhhup!" and keep the cows moving.
- You can do the sounds. - I go that down.
Yeah, so I think I passed his pussy test or something.
He's like "All right!"
But I met all my neighbours in one day so it was pretty good.
Served a purpose.
Bruce Campbell, absolute pleasure, lovely to talk to you.
Thank you, sir.