Bruce Campbell Wields the Autolycus Charm on an Unsuspecting Pack of Fans

Bruce Campbell spent this past weekend at Origins, an international game convention that, by happy coincidence, is in my hometown. I would have caught the show anyway, but having Bruce there was a major bonus. He appeared for three Q&A sessions (I slept through one, I'm afraid), introduced and answered questions about a showing of Army of Darkness, and sat through a couple of autograph sessions. He talked about a lot of his projects past, present, and future, but here's the Xena scoop he gave while he was there:

NON-SPOILER STUFF

First off, Bruce Campbell is a very funny, very sarcastic guy, especially the first day he was there. His second day, after a bit more sleep and when he got to talk to a smaller group about his latest movie, he was less sharp on people, although you still had to dodge his wit if you wanted to ask a question. (I got nailed by him on mine, although I made him laugh.) Person-to-person, in the autograph line, he's nice as can be. The autograph line went very slowly because so many people had bunches of things for him to autograph, pictures to take, and words to say, but he took time for all of them, and none of us in the line (well, none that I know of) begrudged him a moment of it. Great guy.

Bruce said that the character of Autolycus was created by the Royal Thieves writer, Doug Leffel, without him in mind, but that Robert Tapert called him up for the part, saying he thought it was a good match.

Someone asked whether getting kissed by Lucy was as good as it looks. Bruce immediately replied that it was better, and REALLY hammed up his fake sorrow at having to do take after take after take - "Oh! Messed up again! Darn!"

One person jokingly asked Bruce for Lucy Lawless's phone number. Bruce's equally joking response: "484-DROP-DEAD."

He talked a good deal about his next Xena and Herc episodes. His next Xena episode, titled "The King of Assassins," was also his directing debut. He said directing Lucy Lawless was a strange and sometimes frightening experience; said that she could have a line as simple as "Hi, how are you," and gave his imitation of two takes she'd do of it - one perfectly nice and normal, the next as if she's going to rip your throat out. He said he never knew what she was going to do next. More about the episode itself in the spoiler section.

His next Herc episode is called "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs," and we even got to see a short clip from it. (No Xena clip, alas.) It's a Jack and the Beanstalk-style episode.

A couple of people asked him whether Autolycus might ever get a spinoff series of his own. One comment Bruce dropped sounded to me as if it has been considered, but Bruce said he doesn't have any interest in making Autolycus into a series hero - the character would have to become too boring, he says, and made into a Robin Hood-ish guy with a sad past who only steals from the rich. He said Autolycus is much more interesting as just a recurring character who, according to him, lives for tormenting Hercules and "trying to get into Xena's pants."

And speaking of getting into Xena's pants, Bruce isn't a buyer into the subtext idea. "Xena and Gabrielle, Xena and Gabrielle, Xena and Gabrielle," he complained. "She's her SIDEKICK, for cryin' out loud." He made another comment down in the Spoiler section about subtext (a bit more positive, that one) that was awfully funny.

Bruce's latest movie is currently seeking distribution, called Running Time, a black-and-white 16-millimeter film that covers 70 minutes in the life of a convict who just got out of prison and immediately tries to pull off a new heist. Campbell is the ex-con, the movie is written and directed by Josh Becker, who has directed a few Xena episodes, and co-stars the actor who played Thersites, the assassin from Fistful of Dinars.

Bruce loves doing a mixed bag of acting, directing, and producing, and plans to continue all three.

I got to ask the question that's been bothering me for months: In the midst of the climactic battle in Army of Darkness, Bruce's Evil Ash character lets out with a warcry that sounds very familiar to us nowadays. Bruce laughed at the observation, and I asked him whose idea the battle cry originally was, and added a question whether Evil Ash would be peeved that his warcry was stolen by a Warrior Princess. He had a lot of fun poking fun at that, but said that the whole middle-eastern whoop is one of Sam Raimi's pet ideas - the author of the famous "yipping poodle battlecry," as a friend calls it, is revealed. And yeah, he sarcastically thinks that Evil Ash is very, very upset.

SPOILER STUFF (Nothing that gives away the whole episode)

King of Assassins is a "Lucy-lite" episode - Lucy Lawless only had to shoot three days.

The episode features Joxer and Joxer's evil twin brother Jet (the King of Assassins?). According to Bruce, "You ain't lived until you've seen Ted in black leather."

Autolycus gets a little action with Cleopatra in the episode (which Bruce was quite proud of).

Cleopatra also apparently invites Xena to come visit her in Egypt sometime. Bruce made a crack about shooting a line a la Spartacus, where Xena and Cleopatra discuss whether snails or oysters will be served. I'm 95% sure he wasn't serious, although it was hard to tell.

A third Joxer brother, Jace (Jayce? Short for Jason?), is hinted at in the episode, but not seen.

So that's the scoop on Bruce's appearance. I got to chat with him, will hopefully have a picture of me with him, and even got to trade lines with him in a play-acting Wild West game where he made a special appearance as Brisco County, Jr. What fun! He took pictures of the Q&A crowd for his web site, so if you see a blonde in the second row making a face, that may be me.

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