Interview with Bruce Campbell of USA Burn Notice

Spy Thriller Filmed in Miami Returns With New Episodes on January 22

Jan 15, 2009

Burn Notice is a spy thriller about blacklisted agent Michael Weston portrayed by Jeffrey Donovan. Sam (Bruce Campbell) is his sidekick in dangerous Miami misadventures.

Burn Notice returns to the US Network with all new episodes for season 2.5 on January 22, 2009. The spy/thriller drama with sly humor stars Jeffrey Donovan as burned spy Michael Weston, Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona, Bruce Campbell as Sam and Sharon Gless as Madeline (Michael’s mother). Bruce Campbell recently took some time to talk with Suite 101 about the series, which is filmed in Miami.

Mr. Campbell was affable, seeming like an easy going kind of guy it would be fun to spend time with. His character, Sam, is a spy who helps Michael Weston on his misadventures as he tried to figure out why the agency burned him. In the series, Sam usually has a beer in his hand, but is real life he says an actor just cannot afford to drink on the set.

Burn Notice is filmed in Miami, and is almost like a character in the series. Here are a few things that Bruce Campbell had to say about filming in Miami.

Do you have a most memorable moment you’ve had from filming the seasons?

"For me, I’m just convinced one day that some bystander’s going to shoot me with a gun. And the reason why I say that is because my character Sam has a rifle with a scope and often he’s up on high rises and overpasses taking potshots at people. And sometimes you can’t see the crew connected to me, because they put me sometimes far away. And Miami has a lot of guns, and so I’m just afraid some do-gooder’s going to see me up there firing away and they’re going to save Miami from that criminal. And then Burn Notice will have three main characters."

I feel Miami almost a character in the show is Miami itself. It’s so beautiful. How do you feel that filming in this city really helps the vibe of the show?

"It matters, it really does. People can tell. We’re on beaches and we’re in swamps and at the edge of the everglades and running around in funky alleys and buildings, you don’t have to fake your angles. And the main difference is that by shooting there, you know, Florida is a flat state, you don’t see mountains anywhere.

With CSI Miami, they’ve got to be careful because if they tilt up about 10 degrees, they’re going to be looking at the Santa Monica Mountains there.

So you don’t have to fake anything. You’ve got boats left and right, anything you need saying its Miami, it’s there. And we’re really the main show that has stayed. Dexter left, CSI Miami left and we’re it. So we actually get great cooperation. So we get into as many cool places as you’d ever want to get into just because people are excited to have us there. So we’re really capitalizing on it."

How much do you see of yourself in Sam and how much do you see of the others in the characters they portray?

"Well, that’s always a tough call. Actors can’t escape their own physical being. You’re always going to see Bruce Campbell there doing whatever. I don’t drink as much as Sam does and I don’t womanize as much as Sam does because I’ve been married for 17 years to the same woman. So, it’s always fun to just let loose.

Sam is a much more relaxed character than me. I live in the Pacific Northwest and by the time I show up in Miami this March, I’m going to be white and pasty and I’m going to be squinting at the sun because it’s been raining and snowing here in the Pacific Northwest. So I’ll go back down to Miami, I’ll strip my work boots off, my jeans off and get back into that character, get back into that basically removing clothing. You know, I get my t-shirts off; I get my flannel shirts off and start getting back in flip flops and shorts.

Because I literally live at the complete opposite end of the country and it’s a huge adjustment every year, but it kind of cracks me up that people perceive me as this kind of, hey, beach guy with a beer in his hand and I’m kind of the opposite. I’m such a woodsy guy. I like mountains and streams and rivers and lakes."

Cast of Burn Notice

Burn Notice airs on USA Network AT 9 PM Eastern on Thursday nights. New episodes start on January 22, 2009

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