My 1st Blog: Eminem Says He Has Acting Gigs 'In The Works'

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Eminem Says He Has Acting Gigs 'In The Works'

Film projects have to be 'dope enough' to make him want to put down the mic, rapper tells MTV's 'RapFix Live.'
By Alvin Blanco

Eminem
Photo: MTV News

If Eminem is going to leave the studio for an acting gig, it better be a winner. When Eminem appeared on MTV's "RapFix Live", the elusive Detroit rapper revealed that there are film roles he is currently considering. In the "Pass the Mic" portion of the show, Havoc of Mobb Deep asked the Shady Records founder, "When's your next movie?"

"There are some things in the [works], a couple of scripts," Eminem answered. "I guess it's more so of just waiting now to see how they come together. Obviously it's gotta be something that I feel is dope enough to make me want to say, 'OK, let me put the mic down for a second and go do this movie.' There are some things that are in the works. I guess we'll just see how they come together."

According to Em, rapping and acting have some things in common. "I think Ice Cube said this one time, that if you can rap and you can perform to the camera for singing and things like that in videos, it should be a fairly natural transition," Em said. "I know that everybody can't do it, it's not for everybody. But I did hear him say a lot of times it should be easy because they kind of coincide. You're used to doing that."

Since getting raves for his portrayal of Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith in "8 Mile," a movie loosely based on his own life, Em's acting résumé has been rather limited. He's only made cameos in HBO's "Entourage" and the film "Funny People" since. It appears that besides the fact that he's been focusing on his music, Em's respect for the acting craft is part of the reason he hasn't completely jumped into Hollywood.

"Making that transition I felt like, 'Oh, this might be fairly easy,' and it wasn't," Em said. "It's a whole different thing because you may be used to performing to the camera and you may be used to doing certain things in videos and things like that, but it's a whole different ballgame when the music is off and you have lines that you need to say. Remembering the lines and trying to be natural and what am I going to do when I say this line, it's different. It takes a minute to get used to."

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