MovieChat Forums > Bruce Campbell Discussion > Why has Bruce Campbell never made it big...

Why has Bruce Campbell never made it big after the trilogy of the Evil Dead films?


https://www.quora.com/Why-has-Bruce-Campbell-never-made-it-big-after-the-trilogy-of-the-Evil-Dead-films/answer/Jon-Mixon-1

1. Army of Darkness wasn’t a major hit - That was Campbell’s last “hurrah” as far as being the lead in a “major” film. Had it hit greater, it’s likely that Campbell would have been offered bigger roles and that he eventually would have would have become a mid-level performer.

2. Bad career decisions - While The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was certainly a paycheck and it is now a cult classic, it was never a hit and it wasted time that Campbell could have spent looking for and acting in feature films.

3. Bad management - Campbell is capable of comedy and drama, yet his management may have not put in the efforts necessary to get him in front of right people at the right times.

4. Bad luck - Campbell has never had a leading role in a major hit. While he’s been a member of Sam Raimi’s “stable” of performers, he’s never been a part of a major hit film or film franchise.

5. Burn Notice - Campbell had a safe role in the series and he rode that for as long as he could. By the time the series ended, he was “too old” to be considered for higher level film roles.

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He's big to his fans so 😛😛😛😛

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Mostly due to bad management and a bad ego. It's pretty well known that he is quite difficult to work with with pretty much any director besides Sam Raimi. Even some of his own friends, like Bubba Hotep director Don Coscarelli, have publically cut him off and have refused to work with him again.

he recently admitted that he often refuses big roles, and told Screenrant that he had been offered several major roles in the MCU but didn't want to do the work.

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Do you have any sources about the Cascarelli/Campbell thing? Dude was trying to get Campbell to do a sequel for years.

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Campbell talked about it -- he said they had creative differences even though they were good friends. He also said that they had some stark disagreements about the direction of Bubba Hotep 2, so he felt the best thing to do to save the friendship was to walk away from the project.

I can't remember where this interview was, though? I read it way back around the time I originally watched Bubba Hotep because I thought it was such an inventive film.

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I know all that and have read many articles that echo those sentiments. But I've not seen any where Don Coscarelli even hints that he "refuses" to work with Bruce again. If anything, he seems sad that Bruce didn't want to do it.

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This is the first I've heard that Bruce is some egomaniacal Val Kilmer type.

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Without putting too much thought into it, I would say Bruce is a bit of a niche performer and the scripts suitable to his talents were taken by other A-List comedic actors before they ever got to his desk.

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I always felt he could have done many of Jim Carrey's roles, maybe not Ace Ventura, but definitely stuff like Liar Liar or The Truman Show.

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No way. He is not comparable with Jim Carrey. But he could probably do all those Steve Martin or Will Farrell "comedies" much better than they do.

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I agree.

I love Bruce, but he does seem to be one of those actors has a very specific type of character he usually plays.

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[deleted]

Probably refused to suck some studio executive's banana.

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He's working constantly. I would say he's doing fine.

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He simply prefers B-Roles, he's just more comfortable with it. He started his career with B-roles and sticks to what he knows best.

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It’s well known that before he was in Army of Darkness he said one of those prayers that went like “Lord, please let me be good in this one. If I don’t mess up I’ll never ask to be in a big movie again. Please?!”

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