To any film geek, Bruce Campbell is the ultimate B-movie actor. Starring in the Evil Dead trilogy, directed by his lifelong friend Sam Raimi, he established an iconic figure in the annals of low-budget horror flicks: Ash. Single-mindedly wisecracking his way through hell and history, this blood-spattered, chainsaw-equipped character bore not a little resemblance to… Bruce Campbell. Although most beloved for his Evil Dead films, Campbell has also played a multitude of characters in everything from The Hudsucker Proxy to Raimi’s Spider-Man epics, as well as the title characters of his own TV series, Jack of All Trades and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. While still acting and directing in movies like Man with Screaming Brain and Alien Apocalypse, Campbell has also established himself as an author with his autobiography, If Chins Could Kill, and his new novel, Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way. In this interview, he talks about the changing world of B-movies, working with Sam Raimi, and the likelihood of making Evil Dead 4.

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way: What’s this book all about?

About 320 pages. It’s a novel—and I’m the lead character. I take myself on an adventure outside of the B-movie world, and I venture into the A-movie world. I get an opportunity to co-star in a Mike Nichols film, and it’s my first chance to flourish in that world. I decide that I must finally prepare as an actor; I can’t just do it casually, I have to really get into it. Now, it’s Mike Nichols—one of the best directors working. And it all goes to hell in a handcart, basically. Because of me, this movie ultimately crashes and burns, and doesn’t even get released. So it’s a crazy romp in a fictitious world.

What inspired it?

Originally, the publisher and I kicked around ideas for a gag relationship book, but we couldn’t find a fresh angle on the whole thing. And we thought, “Well, you’d have a lot more fun if it wasn’t non-fiction.” It basically morphed into a novel so that we could go crazy with the story and portray whatever scenario we wanted. So it’s not a relationship book, that’s for sure.

Even though the title seems to indicate that it's about making love the Bruce Campbell way…

People will just have to figure it out, that’s what I say. We’ve given them an obtuse title they can interpret however they wish.

Did you base any of it on your real life?

Most of what happens in the book is potentially true. And probably 80 percent of the characters in the book exist, but not necessarily under those names, so I’ve changed the names to protect the guilty.

What's it like being a B-movie actor in the movie industry today?

No different than it was 25 years ago! You get up, you go to work, you do your thing, and then you move on to the next. What’s been good about the B-movies is that they’re being financed more and more by DVD companies directly because of the way the industry’s changed. So I’ve got a couple of deals coming up with different companies that I never would have had been able to hook up with before. So, the change in the market is sometimes bad, and sometimes the change in the market is good.

How have B-movies changed since you first started in the business?

B-movies have become A-movies, and A-movies have gone to television. A-movies have gone to HBO and B-movies are being made into A-movies, like The Mummy. That’s considered an A-movie. Bulls**t! That’s a B-movie! Mission Impossible? That’s a B-movie; it’s based on a TV show. What people call A-movies and what I call A-movies now are different. An A-movie doesn’t have a stupid premise. To me, an A-movie is not written for 17-year-olds—it’s an adult drama. That’s the main, fundamental difference. The Mummy is written for 17-year-olds. So the second you get into that, it’s a whole different ball game.

So what kinds of movie projects are you involved in right now?

I directed Man with the Screaming Brain. The Sci-Fi Channel is a partner in it, so it’s going to air this fall. I’m going to tour with it to 30 or 40 cities this summer, between now and mid-September. It’ll all be on my website—as long as people put a hyphen in between my name they’ll find it. If you don’t put the hyphen, you get Bruce Campbell Dodge, a dealership in Warren, Michigan. And I’m going to make a movie for Dark Horse Comics this fall. Strangely enough, I play myself again—in a movie. It’ll come out some time in ’06.

How difficult is it to play Bruce Campbell, the character?

It’s good because I can make myself an idiot or a genius—it’s up to me. People were wondering if some of the real characters in the book—like Mike Nichols or Richard Gere or Renee Zellweger—had any issue with it. And I said I hadn’t heard anything yet, but I doubt that I will because my character is the dumbest character in the book. So everyone in the book is portrayed as being rational, reasonable characters—except me. So I can have fun with my own world, I get to do that.

How does it feel have become “Bruce Campbell,” a cult character revered by fans?

I appreciate the support because it helps me do what I do. Because people support stuff, I can continue to make movies that I think a certain group of people will like. Fans are their own reward or punishment. If people are fans of something, it’s generally going to perpetuate it. If you support horror, you’re going to get more horror. So the fan support is terrific. On a day to day basis, it doesn’t change my life much because I live in the woods of Oregon, and my neighbors could care less. They’re unimpressed. And that’s healthy.

Do you ever feel constricted by how fans want to see you in movies?

Every actor is constricted like that. There’s the perception, and then there’s the reality. The perception is that I do mostly genre stuff, but I’ve got a movie for Disney coming out this summer called Sky High. That’s going to be PG at the most—no one dies, there’s probably no blood. So to me, I know that I’ve been in stuff that’s outside the genre. But it all depends on what fans watch. If fans watch Disney movies, they’ll see three or four things I’ve done for Disney. If fans only watch horror, yeah, that’s all they’re gonna know me for. So I don’t fight it. It is what it is.