Fugitives from Reality: Bruce Campbell on the Actor as Artist

Deep in the trenches of B-movies and indie productions, where no-budget artists work harder and fail more often than anyone wants to admit, Bruce Campbell has made a career. 

It doesn’t seem like you should be able to make a career rooted there. Nobody dreams of being a journeyman, exactly. But, get a few reps under your belt and start noticing how many journeymen make everything else work and - I get a lot of inspiration from that man and his chin. 

In the quote above, I think he captures something extra cogent about not just who actors are but why he’s made a living from it. 

These gaps in normalcy he describes are explicitly where the magic happens. 

Because there’s no mass produced magic. If you’ve spent much time with wealthy people, or with/at Fortune 500 companies, you get it. Once you have something to lose you have to be conservative. It’s when you have nothing to lose that you take shots.

Shot takers are special. Shot takers are artists. Not all shot takers become artists and not all artists stay shot takers, but all artists definitely take shots.

It’s so obvious, but that’s why great things happen in small places nobody’s ever heard of, and we shouldn’t forget it.  

Real artists are self-made lottery ticket printers in that way. Bruce Campbell certainly fits that bill. And, to be clear, it’s his whole aesthetic that’s the lottery ticket, not just his chin.

Bruce became an actor largely because his dad acted. It gave him a glimpse of a world he wanted more of. His circle of friends helped too. 

They de-sanitized the glamorous hype of acting by learning to make movies themselves in rural Michigan.

Hold that in your mind, and your heart, and let’s break down the quote.

Becoming “fugitives from reality” - that is a choice as much as it is a commitment. With local theater training and home video equipment, Bruce and his friends jumped into staking a claim at the margins. 

Not to compete with the big time. Not directly. But to exist, independently, off to the side? It was too good of an option not to try it. 

When he says “specialize in contradiction,” you get the full meaning. It’s a way of seeing the world, not in black and white, but in a fully respected technicolor color wheel of available oppositions. 

Seeing contradiction is the first step to seeing where the lines are and what gaps are available to color in.

An artist taking a shot fits here.

Because an artist sees the extremes. Defines the poles. Realizes the points of tension in between them, to make the otherwise obvious and ever present boundaries interesting. 

And not just interesting - entertaining. 

Because when you become “the most wide eyed pupil and the most cynical working stiff” at the same time, which, how about those for wonderfully defined poles, you never lose the ability to both be entertained (as a wide eyed kid) or scrutinize what others are entertained by (cynical working stiff).

It’s not compromise to live this way. If anything, it’s range. It’s depth. It’s the inherent, internal contradiction that makes the external work interesting, entertaining, and uniquely yours. 

Which is the last and most important aspect of taking a shot. You have to be the one to take it. You’re the only one who can take it. That’s the artist’s way.

If being an artist without being a global sensation appeals to you, don’t just watch Bruce Campbell, read him too.