Eminem is one of the few individuals on the planet who has so many pseudonyms and aliases that one wouldn't necessarily know what to call him if they were to run into him - Marshall Mathers, Slim Shady, the G.O.A.T.of all rappers. But one name that he will always live in history as is "Bunny Rabbit" and star of 8 Mile.
It's been nearly 20 years since director Curtis Hanson, and, of course, the master words-man himself gave the world one of the greatest underdog hip-hop movies of all time. But as popular and well-known as this cult classic is, take a look at our list of 10 behind the scenes facts that you might not know about it.
10 Eminem lost 24 lbs, appears in every scene
The coveted white-rapper may have been recognizable from the second he appeared on screen, but that doesn't change the fact that Eminem went through some massive physical changes to play the down-and-out Detroit native who was living in a trailer park. Not only that, but Eminem was also asked to dye his hair back to brown for the filming of the movie since he was rocking his signature bleach-blonde hair-due at the time.
But what's even crazier than the physical transformations if that you'll see this worn-out Slim Shady in every single scene of the film. This truly was Eminem's show.
9 Quentin Tarantino & Danny Boyle were both approached to direct
Believe it or not, two of Hollywood's most renowned filmmakers wanted a crack at directing Eminem's motion picture and both of them came extremely close to doing so. In Boyle's case, he even came on and met with Eminem and the other producers before ultimately deciding that their creative differences wouldn't allow him to direct the film the way he wanted too.
Quentin Tarantino wasn't as close as Boyle was to getting the job, but it's rumored that he genuinely wanted it but would've had to back out of making Kill Bill which just wasn't an option. Could you imagine an 8 Mile directed by Quentin Tarantino? Cheddar-Bob shooting himself would've been a much different scene.
8 Was sent out under the name "The Mars Project" and filmed under the name "Untitled Detroit Project"
It's ironic how well-known this cult-classic film is (maybe not ironic since Eminem is one of the top-selling artists of all time) but certainly surprising that it picked up such a loyal fan-base so quickly because the film was sent out to movie theaters under the pseudonym of "The Mars Project" to shroud the project in secrecy before release.
Along with that, the title for the feature wasn't decided until filming was almost finished with the project being worked on under the name "Untitled Detroit Project". Neither of those are as catchy as 8 Mile so we think they made the right call.
7 Was Anthony Mackie's first movie
The man who is about to take up the mantle of Captain America in cinema's most historically successful film franchise faced his greatest enemy back in 2002 - and it was his first movie ever. That's right, Papa Doc himself, the man who was supposed to be the top-dog of Free World and dethrone Eminem as the greatest freestyle rapper was Anthony Mackie's 1st film role.
Talk about intimidating. As we stated, Mackie has gone on to have himself quite a career, and we're betting that taking on Slim Shady didn't hurt it.
6 Southpaw was meant to be a sequel
Do audiences ever wonder what an 8 Mile sequel might have looked like? As it turns out, highly-sought-after director, Kurt Sutter (creator of the Sons of Anarchy series) had the same thought and started developing a sequel to 8 Mile in which a boxer who loses custody of his daughter ends up trying to get her back with Eminem playing the role of the boxer.
Unfortunately, certain things fell through in the film's production and it ended up not working out with Eminem as the lead and Jake Gyllenhall was brought in to replace him - as well as nixing the whole potential 8 Mile sequel subplot.
5 Mekhi Phifer almost passed on his role
This particular behind-the-scenes fact is terrifying for two reasons, with the first obviously being that fans couldn't imagine anybody other than Mekhi Phifer playing B-Rabbit's "Uncle-Tom" friend, Future.
However, the second reason is even scarier because Phifer nearly passed on the role because he was asked to fly to Detroit in order to audition... two days after the September 11th terrorist attacks and Phifer was living in New York City. Understandably, Phifer was a little shaky to get on a plane at that moment, but audiences everywhere are glad that he did.
4 Eminem was supposed to mime his words, but he started rapping
There are nearly a dozen scenes throughout the entirety of 8 Mile where Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. displays his lyrical mastery, but one scene that was never meant to be as authentic as it came out was the freestyling battle in the parking lot. According to the script and the director, Eminem was going to write a "freestyle" that was then going to be dubbed over the film while he just mimed some words on camera.
However, after listening to a few of the other artists spit some verses, Slim Shady just had to step in and do what he does best.
3 "Bunny Rabbit" is for Eminem's big ears
One of the greatest things about Eminem, and why so many people tend to gravitate toward his body of work and persona, is that he will literally call anybody out - including himself. Marshall Mathers has always been the person to clearly, and obscenely, tell it how it is and he has no problem fitting himself into that category, proven by the fact that his character, Bunny Rabbit, gets his nickname because Eminem has some pretty decent sized ears.
But even better than that is finding out that Eminem was actually called "Mickey" (as in Mickey Mouse) when he was a kid for the exact same reason.
2 Couldn't film the final battle at The Shelter (Eminem's original club)
It's ordinarily a good thing when any place that is rundown and considered dingy or decrepit ends up turning itself around and becomes a respectable place of business - just not in this instance.
Director Curtis Anderson and Eminem agreed that it would add special authenticity to the movie if they filmed the final rap battles at the club where Eminem got his original start, The Shelter. Unfortunately, the club had become too nice of a place to fit their vision for the scene and they ended up having to drop the idea.
1 He wrote the film's songs in-between shooting scenes
Marshall Mathers is undoubtedly one of the world's most successful recording artists, and walking hand-in-hand with that title is the incredibly busy schedule to go along with it. It turns out, Eminem was so busy during the filming of 8 Mile that he had to write the songs for the films in between the takes and scenes he was shooting.
As we all know, that ended up giving hip-hop/rap one of the greatest songs of all time in Lose Yourself, still the only rap song to ever win an Oscar. We're not saying that it would necessarily happen again if Eminem were to make another film - but we're not not saying it either.
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