Eminem Reveals The Truth About His Character In '8 Mile'

Believe it or not, it has been 15 years since Eminem released his critically acclaimed film 8 Mile. That's right, 15 years have passed since every kid in my third grade class tried taking part in rap battles at recess. It seems like yesterday right? Well, it wasn't, because (in case you can't remember the first two sentences of this article) it came out 15 years ago.

The movie was a big hit and saw the already popular Eminem reach new levels of fame.

And along with the hit movie came a hit song.

Come on, you definitely know all the words to "Lose Yourself." 

To this day, the song's intro is responded to with loud cheers from every 20-something-year-old dude.

But there's something about both the movie and the song that even the biggest Eminem fans definitely didn't realize.

The man they call Slim Shady recently revealed a ton of secrets about his most popular projects, and the story behind 8 Mileand "Lose Yourself" is pretty surprising. 

While most people assume that the protagonist in 8 Mile is directly linked to Eminem, the rapper says otherwise. 

"I don't play me in the movie," said Eminem.

"There are similarities because I sat down with Scott Silver, the script writer, and told him instances from my life that were used in the movie."

He continued to explain that some of the things that happen to the film's protagonist were exact replications of what happened to him.

Others, he says, were just influenced by certain moments in his life.

He also continued to explain that the lyrics to "Lose Yourself" were supposed to be about his character.

However, halfway through the writing process, he found himself making some changes...

Eminem explains "That was one of those songs where I remember [saying] 'I don’t know how to write about someone else’s life.'”

"So I’m playing this character, but I have to make parallels between my life and his, in this song. I gotta figure out how to reach a medium."

"Because the movie is not me, the movie is Jimmy Smith Jr." 

Who knew?

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