“Lose Yourself” was the first rap song to win an Oscar
Eminem was not present at the Academy Awards to accept his Oscar for Best Original Song in 2003. He was so sure someone else would win that he stayed home and slept instead. “Lose Yourself” also won a Grammy for Best Rap Song in 2004.
Quentin Tarantino was the first choice as director
Tarantino reluctantly declined, as he was in the middle of filming the Kill Bill series. The next choice was Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire), but in the end, they settled on Curtis Hanson.
The rap battle scenes were an actual competition
When the 300 extras for the scene grew bored, director Curtis Hanson decided to pit them against one another in a rap battle. Each of the 150 volunteers got 15 seconds in front of a panel of judges. Ultimately, four were selected, each receiving a one-shot, one-take-only scene against Eminem.
The movie raked in $51 million during its opening weekend
At the time, it was the second most successful premiere in United States history.
Eminem lost a bunch of weight for the role
To really sell that tweaked out trailer park look, the rapper shed 24 pounds to play Rabbit.
Brittany Murphy and Eminem dated in real life during production
Murphy revealed on The Late Show with David Letterman that her and Eminem became romantically involved off set.
The house burning scene almost got scrapped
During filming, a series of arson attacks had just struck Detroit, so getting permission to burn a mobile home for the movie proved difficult. In the end, the director was given the green light after promising to thoroughly clean up the area and donate money to the city’s fire department.
8 Mile was originally called Southpaw
The first iterations of the script had Eminem playing a down-on-his-luck, left-handed boxer striving to regain custody of his daughter. The idea was scrapped, but in 2015, Southpaw was revived, with Jake Gylenhall playing lead and Eminem producing.
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