Eminem's 2012 VIBE Cover Story: 8 Miles and Runnin' | Vibe
It took six weeks of rehearsals and reams of flubbed lines, but by the time 8 Mile hit theaters, Eminem had scored a hip-hop movie masterpiece. Shining a light on both sides of Detroits railroad trackstrailer parks and battle cyphersEms first leading role is a true underdog story, bolstered by callous punch lines and a guy named Cheddar Bob. Ten years after the classic films premiere, VIBE rounds up the gangEminem, Mekhi Phifer, Anthony Mackie, Evan Jones and Omar Benson Millerto wax cinematic. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
Written by Jeff Rosenthal
VIBE: Eminem, at the time you hadnt really acted before; but the story was based in Detroit, based off of some of your life experiences. When the cameras stopped rolling, did you feel that you headed further into these guys world of acting, or they into yours?
Eminem (B-Rabbit): I definitely felt like I was about to embark on some shyt that was not necessarily up my alley. It was all brand new, and Im so glad I had all of these guys around me. My hardest part, was remembering the lines. Cause really, all I had to do was take myself back into the mind frame of how I felt before I got signed with Dre. It wasnt really too much to just be myself.
Anthony Mackie (Papa Doc): It was crazy for me because it was my first job. When we started, I didnt really have no lines. Motherfukkers would be like, Yo, your character sucks, so we just added this. Do this. My biggest thing was just trying to be on the same level as Mekhi fukking Phifer.
Mekhi Phifer (Future): You pulled it off, Cat Daddy! You pulled it off!
Eminem: When I look back at the movie, one of the cool things is we all became friends on the set. The film carried over to how we [eventually] interacted in real life.
You always said this isnt your life story. Does it matter that everybody thinks it is?
Eminem: It doesnt really matter to me. People who really listen to my music probably know whats real in that movie and whats not. There were bits and pieces that were taken from my life, but for the most part, it was the story of the underdog. We rehearsed so much before we even started the film, and I was in every scene. I was there every day from 6 a.m. untilhalf the time5 in the morning the next day. It became a point where I felt like I am this person. Im fukking B-Rabbit because I was living this movie. I had no choice but to be him.
In hindsight, everyone thinks this movie was an easy decision, but the studio and Jimmy Iovine were wondering if this could hurt the Eminem brand. Mariah Careys Glitter had just tanked and the last time Universal had worked with a rapper was on Cool As Ice with Vanilla Ice. Mekhi, you initially passed on the movie. Why?
Phifer: I was due to start ER and 9/11 had just happened. They was like, Okay, we want you to fly to Detroit. It was like, September 13. I aint getting on no plane! Im staying here and Im gonna be a doctor, Goddamn it! I hadnt read the script yet, and they were so hush-hush about the script that I had to sit and read it in [director] Curtis [Hansons] office because they werent releasing it. But when I read it, I thought, Oh, this is kinda slick! They had me go to Detroit to see if me and Em was going to have chemistry This cat became my man so fast that I was like, This is gonna be dope. And when I met all the rest of the guys, I was all in. It was the best decision I ever made.
Omar Benson Miller (Sol George): 8 Mile is so revered, its like everywhere I go, somebodys talking about it. Yesterday, me and Cheddar were walking down the street, heads down, and some kid walked up to us from behind and was like, Anything goes when it comes to hoes/Im the kingpin when it comes to flows
Evan Jones (Cheddar Bob): [Laughs] Yeah, who wrote that rap?
Eminem: That shyt shouldve been a single. Ten freaky girls! Ten! Ten!
Benson Miller: I just want to bring up something: Because of Ems celebrity, not being able to move around so much, Proof was out there a lot. And I can remember the wrap party literally... We kept singing the song and they didnt want to let me and Cheddar into the wrap party because they didnt know who we were. Proof came out and it was all good! Ive been doing movies for a while now, and theres a lot of funny dudes out there. The inclusive nature of you guys, Em and Mekhi, who were already on and who were senior to us in that sense, was great. It was really something special.
Eminem: I definitely appreciate that.
Phifer: Youre cool cats. Yall made it easy on us.
Mekhi, your character was based off of Proof. Did you have any long conversations to try and really understand who he was?
Phifer: I definitely spoke to Proof. I didnt sit him down, because to me the character spoke for itself. I mean, I wanted to portray him as he was in 95. Thats why you see me with that wig, that crazy wig! [Laughs] And that even came down to the wirewe almost couldnt do dreads because they couldnt get the wig right.
Eminem: [Laughs] We used to call Proof the Wolverine because at the Hip-Hop Shop, his hair was crazy. I think that, for the most part, being that I wasnt playing Marshall, Mekhis character didnt have to be exactly like Proof. As long as it had that authenticity, which I felt it did. He just had to be Detroit.
Evan, what was Eminem like in those first rehearsals?
Eminem: I was a fukking dikk! [Laughs]
Jones: Like everyones been saying, he was fantastic. Right off the bat, he took us to the Detroit Lions game. On the way back, you jumped in our car and played us some new tunes off your album [The Eminem Show], and it was so good. You made us all feel like family.
Eminem: Wow, thats crazy. I forgot about the Lions game, man! That was nuts!
Mackie: My hood-ass group, Em was taking me to shoot pool and strippers was jacking me out of my per diem and shyt!
Eminem: We was making it rain with your per diem?
Mackie: We was at the bedbug inn and I was fighting in the parking lots of strip clubs for per diem. When keeping it real goes wrong.
Eminem: Making It Rain With Per Diem, I think that might be the name of my next album.
Movies are a collaborative process, and they can get screwed up at any point in the creative process. When did you first begin to feel confident that this would be a successful motion picture?
Benson Miller: Evan and I talk about it a lot, us all being so young... I had no idea it was going to be a classic. Even when the movie came out and was a mammoth, I just thought this was how everything goes But I remember Curtis had us all come together to show us a little highlight reel of the film. It was probably four or five minutes, and it was dope! Everybody was like, Oh, were on to something now!
Eminem: I was just hoping I didnt look stupid in that shyt. I just hope that its a decent movie and it does okay and just doesnt suck.
Phifer: I remember our first day of shooting was when we was leaving Cheddar Bobs house because he shot himself, and we go into Big Os little car It felt real. And when me and Em was doing Sweet Home Alabama. But when I really knew was in the battle scenes; the crowd, the extras, they made those battle scenes. The rhymes were dope, but the extras were They made it hype. Being up there hosting and feeling that energy, it just felt special. Even our energy in the scenes, it felt like something I hadnt done before. It didnt feel actor-y. It just felt like we were being.
How were the battle scenes written?
Eminem: I think Curtis had a lot of the guys write their own things, and then I would see what they were going to say. I might sit there with some of the guys and be like, What if you changed this? The hardest thing for me was trying to figure out what that last [rhyme] was going to be. As I was going back and forth with the other guys about what they were going to sayOkay, if youre going to say that, then Ill write thisthe last one was [challenging] because I didnt have anything to respond off of. So I had to write it myself, off what somebody could say to me.
Mackie: Ive gotta give it to Curtis, because he challenged us. It wasnt just, Okay, bring us what youve got. He kept you on edge, like, is this enough? Am I giving enough?
Eminem: Thats the other thing, too, with the battle scenes. I remember him saying, This shyt has gotta be flawless. [Then] Curtis would say, Is this good enough? I went back and rewrote a couple of lines. Curtis definitely, definitely pushed us.
Anthony, you play Papa Doc, the leader of Free World. Now, I dont mean to start any fights 10 years after the fact, but do you think Rabbit still couldve won had his manager not been the host?
Mackie: Man, fukk no! I told Curtis, There is no way he wouldve won that battle! That was my whole argument! I said, we should have a tie at first and thats when he comes back and do the shyt he did. But when we did it, it was so cold and it worked so well. The energy of the crowd was so intense when we was filming that people was passing out and shyt, throwing up because it was just so chaotic in there. Still, I know for a fact, if the Chin Tiki was that crazy, no way he could have beat me if his manager wasnt the host. If Im the killuminati of the Tiki?
Phifer: That wasnt at the Chin Tiki, fool! Go watch the movie again. That was at The Shelter! [Laughs]
Eminem: Man, we had 10 freaky girls in the Chin Tiki. How were you fukking it up?
Jones: You know, you had the line where you said, This guy went to Cranbrook, thats a private school, and we all thought whatever But Mitt Romney went there!
Mackie: Thats crazy. I didnt know that!
Phifer: Thats the type of cats Papa Doc was hanging out with. Straight Republicans.
Mackie: When Papa Doc became mayor of Detroit, I bulldozed all that shyt.
Evan, Omar was talking about you getting recognized as Cheddar Bob. Have you learned to shoot a gun in the past 10 years?
Jones: The gun in that movie was the crappiest gun Ive seen, ever, in all the movies Ive been in.
Eminem: That was like a cowboy gun.
Jones: I love that Plaxico Burress was called Cheddar Bob forever.
Benson Miller: Cheddar Bob has gotten hella rap references.
Phifer: Beanie Sigel.
Eminem: Busta Rhymes.
Phifer: You know whats so funny, Evan? You did
your thing, B, because people come up to me sometimes and go, Was Cheddar Bob really like that? Im like, Nah, Evan is good! Hes not mildly retarded or nothing. Hes a very intelligent man!
[Laughter]
Phifer: But he played that role, thats what Im saying! You played it!
One of the extras said in an interview that Brittany Murphy was on the set, singing at the top of her lungs and hanging from ladders, but she could instantly get into character when the director was ready. What was she like to be around?
Eminem: Brittany was a good person, a super-nice girl. She was very down-to-earth; shed talk to anybody.
Jones: And a really good actress. She brought so much to that role.
Phifer: She was bubbly.
Mackie: She was always speaking positivity, and when it was time to get busy, she got busy! Like Evan said, she brought a lot to the role. I remember reading it and not thinking there was so much on the page.
Em, tell me about writing songs on the set.
Eminem: I remember doing Lose Yourself. I went to the trailer during lunch and laid a scratch from top to bottom, just one take through and then stacked some ad-libs and shyt. I was going to come back and re-do it. I actually ended up keeping it. Thats my most vivid memorythat song, and walking around set with a pad of paper. If I didnt have that, Id write it on my hand. I was like a little hamster: Id go from my lunch trailer to the treadmill to run and then jump to the music trailer to make some beats.
Since were discussing Lose Yourself, growing up, how was your moms spaghetti?
Eminem: How was it? From what I remember, it was pretty damn good. Like goulash. [Laughs]
8 Mile is a dark movie, but there are definitely some bright spots: Cheddar Bobs gunshot wound; Eminem battling Xzibit. Which day was the most fun on set?
Benson Miller: Wow. The freestyle session in the parking lot was a lot of fun, except it was so long! We were there like 19 hours that day!
Eminem: And like four degrees out.
Phifer: Thats what I was happy to have the dreads forit was like a little hat.
Benson Miller: You know what? The final battle. Curtis did a really smart thing, and so did Marshall, because he didnt preview to us what he was going to say. So he just shot the rehearsal.
Mackie: Those reactions are real.
Phifer: When we burned down the house? Em, you remember we almost died in that joint! The pyrotechnic dude almost blew himself up, singed his eyebrows off and all of that. Hes got that surprised look nowno eyebrows.
Eminem: I got my shyt singed a little bit, too. I cant remember exactly how that shyt went down, but
Phifer: Didnt you jump out the window or some crazy shyt?
She musta been OK, cus that pic got you stuttering. LOL.
at the fact that Mitt Romney went to the same school as Papa Doc..
