James McAvoy’s directorial debut, “California Schemin’”, tells the outrageous true story of two Scottish students who pretended to be American rappers and claimed Eminem was their mentor.
The duo, known as Silibil N’ Brains, used fake accents and wild backstories to trick the music industry, scoring a major-label deal and opening for D12 at the Brixton Academy. That gig was their undoing, remembers Gavin Bain aka Brains:
“When we got to the venue, D12 were on stage sound checking, and so we decided we just had to be confident. We went on stage and gave the group all a hug and a handshake, as if we had known them for years. We knew they would probably think Who are these weird guys but we just had to fake it. Of course, everyone thought we were best friends with Eminem, and he had taught us how to rap, so we just had to really keep our distance from him so that no one would ask us questions, as he would have no idea who we were.
It was difficult as he was our hero and we couldn’t even spend time with him.
The show was our moment of glory. We were totally outrageous, and the audience all loved us. The fan forums for D12 at the time were even saying that we were better than the main act, as we performed with a full band by this time.
When we got off stage, though, our lawyer was waiting for us, and basically, he said he knew who we really were. My heart just sank”.
The pressure of (badly) keeping the lie up, substance abuse, and management that lost trust in Silibil N’ Brains all came together, and their hoax fell apart.
It took almost 20 years to turn this tragedy into an entertaining story, adapted for the big screen.
The film will premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and features McAvoy in a supporting role.
