In a rare interview, Kim Basinger shares her thoughts on working with Eminem in 8 Mile, revealing what surprised her most about the rapper-turned-actor.
Kim Basinger does not do interviews often. However, in a new conversation with Variety, she reflected on her time filming 8 Mile — including her unexpected first request before accepting the role.
Basinger, who played Eminem’s troubled mother, Stephanie, revealed that when she first read the script, one line immediately stood out:
I remember reading one line where the mother says, “Do you want some fucking cereal or some fucking eggs?” And I called Curtis [Hanson, film director, screenwriter, and producer]. He picked up the phone, and I didn’t even say hello. I just said, “If you’ll change the line to ‘fucking pancakes’, I’ll do the movie”.
Of course, pancakes made the cut, and Basinger joined the project.
The movie tackles some emotionally heavy topics of toxic family dynamics. While filming the intense mother-son scenes, Kim felt she had to talk about it with Eminem, for whom it was his first-ever dramatic role. Nevertheless, they both were fully committed to making the performances feel real.
When Marshall and I started doing these really heavy, tough scenes, I remember saying, “This is only a movie. We’re only pretending, but we have to go for it. Let’s just go for it. I’m going to say some things, and it’s going to be horrible, and I’m going to keep saying them, and they’re going to come out of my mouth”. I think we were kind of like two fighters in a ring.
Looking back, she praised Eminem for his raw talent and humility despite being one of the biggest stars in the world at the time.
To have someone that talented, and to have someone that you would have thought had a huge ego, would puff up himself and have an entourage and everything around him — he had some of the nicest people surrounding him that I’ve ever known. There’s nobody in the world like him.
Though she remains picky about roles, 8 Mile remains a special part of her filmography. And thanks to one small script tweak, fucking pancakes became an unforgettable piece of 8 Mile history.
