A Visit to the Set of Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3

We chat with Bruce Campbell, Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo and Arielle Carver-O’Neill on the Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3 set

Last year, ComingSoon.net got a chance to visit the Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3 set in New Zealand and chat with the cast, including Bruce Campbell, Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo and Arielle Carver-O’Neill, who plays Ash’s daughter Brandy.

This season promises to be even bloodier than last time we saw our intrepid gang of Deadite hunters. It’s also got a twist. Ash has a daughter. We got to check out the set, which was covered in blowing leaves and the debris of a town that has been through a Deadite war. The scene took place at the end of the Episode 10 finale, so there isn’t much we can reveal, but let’s just say that there are cars upside down, the town is trashed and everyone we spoke to was covered in sticky fake blood. Well, that actually happens every episode, but we can tell you this; the scene was extremely emotional, so much so that we were kept back a bit so the actors could work.

Campbell told us about where we find Ash when the season starts. “He’s selling housewares out of his store, doing crappy advertisements and crappy local commercials for ‘Ashy Slashy’s Sex Toy/Housewares Emporium.’ The first thing they see is Ashy’s sh**y commercial because he’s the hero of the town. So he’s going to milk it and throw parties and have fun, and everything is going to be just fine.”

He spoke about how his daughter Brandy is introduced. “She’s introduced very jarringly by my baby mama, who is pissed that I don’t even recognize her or remember her, or remember the one night that we had, the drunken crazy night in the back of the Delta where she was conceived… bad things are happening at her high school. Ash sort of gets sucked back into this because she sort of symbolizes the return of the bad sh*t. The Deadites are sort of like the mafia. They go after your family if they can’t get you. She’s sort of a target, so Ash has to save the world and learn how to be a good father. To me, it’s just a great turn of events, to put a daughter in his life. Ash swears all the time and he has a lot of bad habits, and he doesn’t want her to do the same thing. ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Classic sh**y parenting. But, he gets better. I really like the fact that Ash has to grow a little bit. You can’t have a daughter and not have it affect you. I have a daughter. Doing these scenes [the one we saw shooting], I know exactly it feels. It’s very easy to do, to get emotional with your daughter.” We were on set on what was Father’s Day in the U.S., and he said that it seemed appropriate.

Campbell also explained that part of the bonding with Brandy is the fact that, though he may not be the best father, he’s never lied to her. He also said that Ruby (Lucy Lawless) is back as a school counselor at Brandy’s school. “She’s doing the insidious sh**, telling her, ‘Your father is sick. He killed all these people. He’s delusional. We need to protect you from him. He’s Ashy Slashy.’ Every time she sees me, I’m in a horrible, compromising position that you can’t explain your way out of.”

He also talked about how much work he and Arielle did on the scenes. “You have to give a sh** about your main characters.” He said that they have to have an emotional bond so the audience cares about them. “Second season, you saw Ash out of school. Like teacher after school. You went into his room. You met his dad. You saw his environment. Now we go a little deeper. He’s drawn back into it. No more parties at the store. They have to get into it. It turns out that we’re introducing more of the mythology this year. The Knights of Sumaria come back, and Ash is like, ‘What? Knights of Columbus?’ They’re way more serious than he is, and they’re convinced that he’s the prophesied one. And I’m like, I don’t do the eternal thing, you know? You guys knock yourself out. Kelly finally gets to have it out with Ruby. She becomes a badass. By the end, if we get a season 4, anything you see here won’t be.”

DeLorenzo, who plays Kelly, told us that ending the season was bittersweet. “I don’t want it to be done! Cover me with blood!” Though she couldn’t give details about the scene, she said it was a really emotional moment for the show. “It’s the theme of family,” she said. “The family you’re related to by blood, but in this case, the family you’re related to through bloodshed.” She said she was getting chills talking about it. “Ash has grown really close to these people. Say what you will about his emotional immaturity, we’ve seen by now that he has grown. He’s still the same Ash, he still says some ignorant things, and you just have to laugh at his antics, always. But at the same time, I really love where the writers have taken his character.”

She also talked about the loss of Ruby as a fellow woman on the team. “This was the first female she’s bonded with, and that was a very big sister sort of relationship. It’s really beautiful because one of the things that Ruby said to her was–her last words were, ‘Forge that path.’ Kelly, we’ve established, sort of behind the scenes, she makes her own jewelry, she cuts her own shirts, so she’s very artistic that way. She has a bracelet on from halfway through the season that says ‘forge your path.’ And Kelly does that this season. It’s interesting because it sheds some light. Once you get what you want – and for Kelly, she didn’t want to be complacent. She’s a warrior without a war. And while Ash and Pablo were okay waiting for evil to return, Kelly was looking for the next fight. This is her purpose now. She was always lost, but once her parents died and she was running with Ash and Pablo, she had a purpose. She decides in a moment. She seizes this opportunity. She sees evil and says, I’m not going to wait for them. But she realizes that she’s putting a very high risk, not only on herself but on the people she loves. But, when she gets the revenge she was looking for in this epic battle with evil, she realizes something so magnificent, which is, it wasn’t about revenge at all. It was about protecting the people I love… but it comes at a cost.” She said that we’re going to see Kelly get a little bit softer, though she’s still “got that fire.”

Santiago told us where Pablo is when the season begins. “Pablo is sort of seeing things very differently. He is sort of still being tormented by the after effects with the Necronomicon and the undeniable relationship he has acquired with it. It’s because of his ancestry that he is able to become his own hero. We will get to watch him – maybe this season Pablo will get the girl, maybe… one of three things will happen this season. He will help save the world from evil, he will get the girl and stay alive. At least one of those things will happen,” he laughed. “For him, it’s about taking matters into his own hands. He needs to be able to fight on his own and find a hero within himself… if he’s with the team or on his own, he finds the power to survive.” He also teased that Pablo might see his uncle at some point in the season.

Pablo also has his food truck, that we saw on set. “He’s got a taco truck. He’s got his fish and chips truck, so he’s living the dream until his dream is disrupted by the evil force, and then he is also trying keep Kelly close because he wants to not lose her to an impossible, competitive male. He’s also trying to keep Ash and his daughter together… the rest is just blood and mayhem.”

Carter-O’Neill said that joining the cast was wonderful, but that she was nervous at first. “Everyone was so nice and welcoming. I’ve learned so much, working with these people.” The rest of the cast praised her work over and over again, saying that she was a perfect fit. In fact, she had just landed back in New Zealand on the trip back from her audition when she got the call that she’d landed the role of Ash’s daughter.

She explained how Brandy is introduced into the show. “It’s a very bloody introduction,” she laughed. “How could it not be? Brandy is serving detention at her school when you first meet her, for some very creative artistry on some lockers with her best friend. All of sudden, they get weirdly approached by her school mascot, and it’s a very creepy scenario. Then suddenly there’s blood everywhere, lockers are shaking, we’re screaming and trying to run, slipping on the blood. It gets hectic. Then, of course, very tragic events ensue, which is always what happens on the show, really.”

She also gave us a look at the meeting between Ash and Brandy. “She calls her mom, who is around Ash at the time, and asks for his help to save their daughter. That’s when he finds out that he has a daughter. So they head to the school and find her and her friend. Brandy asks what this guy is doing here and Mom says, actually, this is your father. She’s always been told that her father was a crack dealer that got shanked in prison,” she laughed. “This was not what she was expecting. And then the get interrupted in their introduction by evil.”

Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3 will premiere on Starz Sunday, February 25. Are you guys excited for the return of the show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.