14 DAY TRIAL // As he’s about to embark on a film comeback, which will reportedly launch a career that he did not care enough to see take off after “8 Mile,” rapper Eminem has just won the hardest battle: he’s secured the vote of confidence from industry people.
There’s no doubt that Eminem has all his fans on his side, wanting to see him succeed in film just like he did in music, so getting the vote from industry people is a step forward.
Currently, Em has three projects in production: “Random Acts of Violence,” a loose take on Grand Theft Auto, a 3D horror called “Shady Talez” and a boxing-themed drama “Southpaw,” PopEater reports.
Though audiences at large (fans excluded) never see with kind eyes a rapper’s transition from music to the big screen, Eminem might just be the one to prove his worth, just like Will Smith and Mark Wahlberg before him.
To an extent, Eminem is already a performer, in the sense of putting up an act for the audiences. Of all the rappers, he may be the most accomplished, always managing to embrace various personas in one single album.
This alone should be indication that he will do wonderfully in front of the camera as well, industry insiders say for the aforementioned e-zine.
“I think it’s a good role for Eminem. But I think we’re all skeptical about ‘rapper movies.’ Still, Eminem, more than almost anybody in the last 10 years, has the potential to follow in the Fresh Prince [Will Smith] or Marky Mark’s [Mark Wahlberg] ascent to legitimate acting,” Jake Paine, editor-in-chief of hip-hop website HipHopDX.com, says for PopEater.
Unlike with other rappers, Eminem stands great chances of putting something out there that doesn’t look cheap, precisely because of this strength he has of projecting whatever persona he wants to project to an audience.
In other words, where 50 Cent seems to make movies merely to occupy his time, in Eminem it will come more naturally. He only needs to find the right project and the right people to work with – and the abovementioned 3 films seem just about right.
“People trust Eminem’s art differently than they trust a Master P or 50 Cent. Even during his weaker albums, he holds fans’ attention so securely. Through his concept records, he’s a master of suspension of disbelief,” Paine says.
“More than anything, Eminem never makes his art feel cheap, and that’s been a problem with a vast majority of ‘rapper films.’ Just give him a strong supporting cast and a talented director and he’ll be fine,” Paine adds.