Interview: ‘Hysteria!’ Star Bruce Campbell Discusses His Role in the New Peacock Series

Bruce Campbell is a Hollywood icon. He first rose to fame thanks to his role as Ash Williams in the Evil Dead franchise, and went on to appear in series like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., and Burn Notice, as well as films such as The Hudsucker Proxy, Bubba Ho-Tep, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Cars 2, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Campbell is returning to his horror roots in the new Peacock series, HYSTERIA!. When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported “supernatural activity” triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.

We spoke with Campbell about his character, Chief Dandridge, returning to the horror genre, and working in television. 

First of all, Bruce, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Congratulations on the series.

Thank you, sir. So, I assume then I’m on your radar for an award for doing the interview for this show?

That’s precisely what we’re aiming for here. 

Okay, just wanted to double-check before we go further. The chance for some awards here. 

I want to start off by saying I really like your character. He’s very earnest and grounded, and caring at times.

He’s an adult. 

You don’t see that in this genre very often. 

You see a sea of emotionally crippled people. He’s a mature character. He’s a small town, he acknowledges that. They don’t know anything, but they’re not idiots either. Just because you’re from a small town, you can still tell if someone’s lying. Sometimes those are the better ones at it. It’s not a big-city detective who’s worried about big stuff. These guys can look at small things. That’s why you never speed through a small town. They have nothing to do but sit there with that radar gun the whole time. I’ve been enjoying it so far. I think they’re treating the audience with respect.  They’re treating the characters with respect. It’s pretty rare. 

Were you hesitant to lean into another horror role? 

I don’t run from horror. There’s no point. I’ll never escape it. I don’t gravitate toward it. I don’t say to my agents, “No horror.” I just say, “How about no crappy scripts? How about that? No lousy writers. No crappy directors. How about that?” I don’t block horror out, but I do have a higher standard if it is horror. This met enough criteria. 

Julie Bowen is a great anchor of the show. I’ll teach her how to do all the horror stuff. Don’t worry about that. Out in the back of the studio, I’ll help her learn how to scream. Don’t worry about that. Look, with the same studio, I did Burn Notice and Hercules and Xena with those guys. I have an affinity for it. Those are decisions that you factor in when you go, “Am I doing this for a company that is a fly-by-night company? Or is it a real company? Who are the people they have involved?” Enough boxes were checked for me to take it seriously. Then the writing was just good.

I talked to you a handful of years ago, and you mentioned that you liked the pacing of television production. I’m just wondering how this compares to other television work that you’ve done. 

This is slow. I was sitting in Covington, Georgia going, “Normally I’d be home by now.” I started looking at the paperwork of how many days it takes to film an episode. In Hercules days, it was seven. Seven days, you film an entire episode, stunts, whatever, anything. This is double that. Because, I think in the world of streaming, if this is the end result, and you’re not going to a theater, you’ve got to bring the movie to the TV. I think that’s what streaming has done. It has forced everybody, even against their will, to go, “All right, let’s do this better.” 

My first TV was Knots Landing in 1986, something like that. Unless you blew your line, they were moving on. You got one take, and you saw three shadows on everybody’s face. The lighting was so horrible. Michelle Lee was the star, and after the take, she would look over to the camera guy and go, “Hey, Benny, good? OK, moving on.” They never consulted the director. That was TV in the 80s. 

I didn’t touch TV for five years after my first TV gig. I was like, “This is really garbage. Just garbage. I think it was HBO. I think some things happened at HBO that caused mainstream actors to go, “I can do television.”Because normally, feature actors would not touch television with a 10-foot pole. It’s nice to see the work has improved to the point where that’s where the good work is. It’s actually not in movies. Movies are just guys in spandex now. That’s all the movies are now. If you want to tell a real story with real characters, you actually have to go to TV.

Before I let you go, I just have one quick question. You’ve done a lot of horror, but is there anything that scares you? 

Ignorance. 

That’s a great answer.

I’m terrified. 

Well, Bruce, congratulations. It’s a pleasure to talk to you. I’m a big fan. 

Thank you, my friend. Talk to you soon, Jeff.

You can watch our interview with Bruce Campbell below.