Whatever You Say I Am_ The Life and Times of Eminem - Anthony Bozza [18]
The timing was right for 8 Mile and Eminem’s redemption in the American pop-culture landscape. The country needed a real American story, that of a hero overcoming obstacles. In a year full of escapist fantasies such as Spider-Man; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones; and Men in Black II, 8 Mile reasserted a philosophy that America was built on (as Eminem says in the film’s theme song, “Lose Yourself”): “You can do anything you put your mind to, man.” The Lord of the Rings allowed Americans to root for the allies’ fight against a shadowy evil in a far-off land while our nation moved closer to war with a nation similarly portrayed by the government. But 8 Mile reminded people why they were fighting.
In 2002, Eminem was the cultural locus of America, the man who in just one year seemed to have garnered the entire world into his card-carrying fan club without having campaigned. In the weeks following the release of the film, “Eminem awareness” was even greater than it was when he was infamous. It was surreal watching who came on board as an Eminem fan. Even those he had cruelly lampooned had nothing but kind words. At the 8 Mile premiere, Christina Aguilera gushed, “Everyone has that right to get out and be artistic in any way, shape, or form and express themselves. I’m a big supporter of someone who’s trying to go out there and do their thing.” Barbra Streisand’s reaction was supremely strange: “Most of the language I couldn’t understand,” she said of 8 Mile. “It was like watching a foreign film. But it’s a real slice of life. This kid Eminem is really interesting, I can relate to the truth and I can relate to the emotion and I can relate to him in some strange way. I was raised in the projects, I was born in Brooklyn. We were poor. I relate to that stuff because it’s my heritage. That’s a big part of me, that kid playing in the street.” Strangest to see, though, was Eminem as the topic of coffee talk on The View in December 2002. Cohost Mererdith Vieira admitted to liking him, as did guest Whoopi Goldberg. A short discussion ensued when the raspy-voiced Joy Behar reviewed 8 Mile as if it were a home movie from the Mathers’ family archive and predicted that Eminem would lose credibility with his fans for appearing vulnerable in the film. “Once a tough guy like that shows he’s vulnerable, it’s over,” she said. “No one wants to see that.”
Time will tell, but I’m not putting my money on Joy. One of Eminem’s strengths is his instinct to critique himself first, the world second. He has been pointing out his faults and weaknesses nationally for four years and it has hardly hurt his profile.
After the release of 8 Mile, Eminem avoided the spotlight as much as possible. In paparazzi photos he looked somber, and at the forty-fourth Grammys on February 23, 2003, he looked stoic but emotional. After the ceremony, Eminem passed on the parties much as he did at the L.A. premiere for 8 Mile, where he left the business of Hollywood to his costars and ran the red carpet like a fifty-yard dash. Eminem stopped for just one interview that night, with the hosts of a local hip-hop radio station. At the premiere party for the film, he sat surrounded by his friends, separated from the two thousand or so guests by a phalanx of security. I didn’t go to the 8 Mile premiere, although I was