Eminem was originally the first choice to star in Mark Wahlberg’s role in the Oscar-nominated movie The Fighter.
During a recent appearance on the Hollywood Gold podcast, The Fighter producer Todd Lieberman revealed Slim Shady was in line to play the lead role of Micky Ward.
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“The first person that we thought would star in this film was Eminem,” Lieberman said. “Eminem was going to be Micky Ward. That was a moment in time where he had come off of 8 Mile, and he was interested in making movies, and he wanted to do a boxing movie.”
He added: “So that was something we pursued for a minute. And there was real life in that for a minute.”
Released in 2010, The Fighter was directed by David O. Russell and also starred Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. It was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress twice, Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay.
During an interview with DJ Whoo Kid in 2009, Wahlberg — who also produced The Fighter — revealed he was considering Eminem as a co-star.
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“[Matt Damon and I] were supposed to do this boxing movie together,” he said at the time. “We were going to play brothers and I don’t think he’s really feeling up to it so maybe we’ll get Eminem to play the part … We want it to kinda feel authentic as opposed to getting some soft Hollywood act.”
The film adds to a list of major movies Eminem almost starred in. Last year, it was revealed the Detroit rap icon nearly appeared in a Grand Theft Auto movie following the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001.
Kirk Ewing, a friend of GTA creators Sam and Dan Houser, said the duo were offered $5 million for the rights to a movie starring Em that would be directed by Top Gun director Tony Scott. However, they turned it down.
“[The agent] said: ‘Kirk, we’ve got Eminem to star, and it’s a Tony Scott film. $5 million on the nose. Are you interested?’” Ewing recalled on the BBC’s Grandest Game podcast. “And I phoned up Sam and I said: ‘Listen to this. They want Eminem in the Grand Theft Auto movie and Tony Scott to direct.’
“And he said: ‘Not interested’ … They realized that the media franchise that they had was bigger than any movie that was going on at the time.”
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Another movie Eminem was in talks with was 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Tom Hardy went on to play the role of Max Rockatansky after Slim Shady didn’t want to film outside of his native Michigan.
“He’d done 8 Mile, and I found that really interesting. I thought, ‘He’s got that quality,’” director George Miller told Vulture. “We’d done the first Happy Feet with the late Brittany Murphy, and she had done 8 Mile, so I asked her what he was like and would this be something really interesting for him? She had no reservations about saying what a wonderful talent he is.”
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He continued: “We did get in touch with him, though that’s as far as it went because we were going to shoot it in Australia at that point, and he simply didn’t want to leave home. I think he had the impression that if he could do it out of his home state, then he’d be up for it.”
