5 and a Half Questions with Bruce Campbell

I managed to catch up with fan-boy favorite Bruce Campbell shortly after he'd finished his latest directorial effort, My Name Is Bruce, and just before Spider-man 3 broke every box office record imaginable. The Chin is an understandably very busy guy and while he could've outright denied my interview request and went on being a cult icon; he generously granted it. Now I give you my five and a half questions with Bruce.


BRUCE: Dustin, Bruce here.

DUSTIN: Bruce, thanks for the participation. How did you become attached to Mindwarp?

BRUCE: This was Fangoria magazine's attempt to get into the movie biz and I was their poster child of sorts, so they contacted me when they were putting things together.

DUSTIN: What can you tell us about Angus Scrimm?

BRUCE: He was delightful. It's kind of funny in the film biz, the guys who play creeps are wonderfully nice in real life and the guys who play heroes are creeps in real life.

DUSTIN: I heard you did some costuming on Mindwarp. What was that about?

BRUCE: It was about meeting my future wife, Ida Gearon - she was the costume designer and I went after her like a freight train. 16 years later we're still together so Mindwarp will always be remembered fondly.

DUSTIN: The film lensed in scenic Gay, Michigan. Your thoughts?

BRUCE: It was frickin cold, shooting on the shores of Lake Superior in the early spring. What were we thinking!? Visit Gay, Michigan in March and you'll know what I'm talking about.

DUSTIN: Vomiting leeches aside, I'm not so convinced that your character really bit the dust in Mindwarp. How prepared are you to return for Mindwarp 2: Stover's Revenge? Any ideas?

BRUCE: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

DUSTIN: Ha, I could've expected that. Anything else you'd like to add?

BRUCE: Honestly, it's been almost 20 years since I did that flick, but my recollections are almost all good - I liked what some entrepreneurs were doing, trying to build a viable studio in Eagle River, Wisconsin and I enjoyed Steve Barnett as a director and I loved courting Ida. There you have it.
Steve Barnett also passed this blurb along that Bruce wrote several years back about his Mindwarp experience.

BRUCE: "Mindwarp was good because I met my wife on it. She was the costume designer. So, that's about the only thing I got out of that. But what was exciting about it at the time was that it was for Fangoria magazine. They decided, instead of promoting other people's movies, let's make three of our own. Mindwarp was first, and then they did two others and shut everything down, 'cause they went, well, that's not working very well.

But that was a physically miserable shoot because we were on Lake Superior in February. And I wasn't supposed to look like I was cold, so I just wore regular pants and a shirt. We would shoot until I couldn't feel my hands anymore - then I would go into a van and put my hands on the heating vent until I could feel my extremities again. I vomit leeches in this film. When you're vomiting leeches, your days are numbered. It's just a matter of time."

Director Steve Barnett and Star Bruce Campbell on the set.
(Photo courtesy Steve Barnett)