‘Spider-Man’ films spin roles for longtime pals

Actor Bruce Campbell and director Sam Raimi have been friends for more than 30 years, since they attended Wylie E. Groves High School in Beverly Hills, Mich.

“We met in drama class,” Campbell recalls. “He was doing what I thought was a bad pantomime. I thought he was way overdoing it, and I think he felt my pantomime kind of blew because I wasn’t doing much of anything.”

The two later collaborated as star and director of the classic 1981 horror film, “Evil Dead,” and its two sequels, 1987’s “Evil Dead II” and 1993’s “Army of Darkness.”

Over the years, Raimi has called on Campbell to do cameos in the majority of his films. But in the case of “Spider-Man,” Campbell approached Raimi.

“It is the first time I said, ‘You have to give me a part in this movie because it’s “Spider-Man.” It’s going to be big.’ He was like, ‘All right, all right.’ ”

In the first “Spider-Man,” Campbell played the sleazy wrestling ring announcer; in “Spider-Man 2,” he was the snooty theater usher who gives Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) a difficult time.

And in “Spider-Man 3,” which opens Friday, Campbell plays a stuffy maitre d’ at a posh French restaurant -- complete with an Inspector Clouseau-esque faux French accent and pencil-thin mustache.

“Sam and I had French class in high school,” says Campbell, who also is the wryly amusing new spokesman for Old Spice and author of the books “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” and “Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way.”

“We had a teacher we both enjoyed and we liked making fun of the accent and practicing the accent. When [he gave me] the maitre d’ [role], he said, ‘Let’s do the French thing.’ ”

The day before Campbell filmed the scene, he met with Raimi and Maguire in the latter’s trailer to hone the comedic moments.

“You kick the thing around,” Campbell explains. “Then the next day on the set, Sam would throw out stuff while the cameras were rolling.”

Long ago, it was Raimi who used to appear in the Super 8 movies that Campbell and his neighborhood buddies made as teenagers.

“He seemed like a good guy to have involved in the movies that we were making,” Campbell says.

“He came in and was an immediate hit. He was completely crazy. He would just do about anything. He was a remarkably gifted, hysterical comedian.”

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-- Susan King