 |
Curtis Hanson With a career that spans the crazy-nanny genre, (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) to the critically acclaimed Wonder Boys, it’s no surprise that Hanson has now turned his hand to a movie featuring a crumbling Detroit in the mid nineties and a controversial rapper called Eminem.
For director Curtis Hanson, 8 Mile was an opportunity to once again explore a unique stratum of American culture, to peel back its layers and take a look at people struggling to find their way: "In 8 Mile, we are exposed to a world little known or visited in film, or in mainstream news coverage: impoverished America struggling to make it legitimately in the recesses of the inner city. The people in Detroit know 8 Mile as the city limit, a border, a boundary. But for the character of Jimmy, 8 Mile is the psychological dividing line that separates him from where he wants to be and who he wants to be.”
Hanson was sent the original script that had been developed by Brian Grazer at Imagine Entertainment: “Brian had had the foresight to get involved with Eminem,” Hanson explains, “and when the script was sent to me there was already the possibility of Eminem starring in it. You know, truthfully, I didn't care about any of the controversy surrounding Eminem, all I cared about was could he deliver a performance that could be at the centre of the movie that I wanted to make, and help me tell the story that I was interested in telling, and truthfully, I think the fact that I had that attitude, was part of what he liked about me, and gave him confidence to move forward with me.”
Hanson has nothing but praise for the rapper’s acting debut: “Marshall gave me all a director could ask for from an actor – enormous talent, focus, dedication and a total commitment to the story we were trying to tell. He came at the job with humility, respect and tremendous self-discipline. No matter how difficult the circumstances, he was always determined to do his best and to find the truth in every moment.”
Clearly working with a musician, who had never acted in a movie before was fraught with difficulty, as Hanson explains: “Well, there was both the challenge and the opportunity, you know the fact that he had never done it before, I felt that if he could pull it off, and be at the centre of this story, and have it work, that it could be a great surprise for the audience and be an exciting discovery. There's nothing more exciting than an auspicious debut in movies! ”
Critics have been praising Eminem’s “auspicious debut”, but to get there involved a lot of hard work. “It was a long, difficult journey for both of us, and it started with six weeks of rehearsal, first him and me and gradually I brought in other actors, and then through the four and half months of actual shooting. And at the end of the road, on the last day, I said to him, ‘how you doing?’ and he said, ‘never again’ and he meant it! I trust he'll change his mind, now that the performance is being received the way it was, he was absolutely sincere at the time!”
Hanson clearly gets asked a lot about whether the movie was a biography of Eminem or a work of fiction, so he sets the record straight: “Well the movie is in no way a biography of Eminem, obviously because it takes place in one week, although I was trying to be as truthful as possible to the world from which he emerged, so there are certain places where it overlaps, the truth of his life as well, particularly the emotional truth of his life. The specific plot points are fictional.”
“I was not a Hip Hop afficianado before I got involved with this project,” explains Hanson, “I of course knew the music - I'm a great music lover - and there were certain artists that I liked a lot, but I was no means an afficianado.” But there were other reasons why this project caught his eye: “Hip Hop interested me more culturally, quite frankly, the way in which society has reacted to Hip Hop, has been threatened by it, has attempted to write it off for years, and finally has had to begrudgingly acknowledge it because it has exploded into every aspect of our culture. All of that interested me, and I felt that that was something that could be explored with this movie.”
Hanson’s overriding goal throughout production was to make the movie feel authentic: “I wanted the movie to feel real. Natural. Almost documentary-like. I loved exploring the world this story takes place in and I wanted the audience to feel that they actually went into that world, too.”
It could be argued that the real star of 8 Mile is the city of Detroit. “Getting to know Detroit was a revelation,” said Hanson. “It's a city that used to promise a future to anybody who came there, it was the heart of Industrial America, and now it appears to promise nothing. It's a tough city and we were there for four and half months in the winter and it was a difficult shoot but it was also an exciting one because the visual opportunities in Detroit are incredible, everywhere you look there are remainders of this glorious past it had and in the foreground you have our characters who have no connection to that past, and who are just trying to figure out their present and their future.”
|
