Eminem's 8 Mile high

Rapper Eminem’s film debut in 8 Mile has already conquered the US box office and now it’s doing the same here.

The film, which appears to be a semi-biographical account of Eminem’s life, looks at life in Detroit through the eyes of a young white rapper who struggles to express his anger through music.

Eminem is proud of his success. He recalls: “As soon as I got the script and started reading a few pages, it was like ‘This is something big, I want to do it’. There was downtime between The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show so there was time for me to do it.”

The controversial rapper, who plays aspiring rapper Jimmy, talks about his relationship with director Curtis Hanson, who he describes as being “worlds apart”.

He says: “He had to trust me on the raps and music in the movie and I have to trust him in the acting cos I’d never done it before besides videos. I didn’t look at any playbacks, I felt like if it felt real in a scene, then it’d come out right.”

Eminem also sounds off about the rap battles that take place through the film. He says: “If people know anything about your personal life at all, that’s the worst weapon that someone can have. You’re broke, you’re dumb, you dropped out of school or you didn’t drop out of school and you’re going to college and you’re a preppie.”