Don't Ask Eminem Why He Performed at the Oscars (Even He Doesn't Know)
For one brief, shining, awkward, strange, and questionably hype moment during Sunday night’s Academy Awards, Eminem showed up for a surprise performance of “Lose Yourself.” And if you looked at the crowd, reactions ran from swole bro watching his gym playlist come to life (Idina Menzel) to why? (Billie Eilish).
It’s been 17 years since Slim Shady won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2003 for “Lose Yourself,” the standout track from his semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile. At the time, he declined to perform the song at the ceremony. So that left us with Sunday night—a long-overdue, inexplicable rendition of the song; drop bombs, vomit on his sweater, mom’s spaghetti, etc. etc. Thanks to a rare interview Eminem gave to Variety, we finally know how it came together.
“I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool,” he said. “Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed ‘Lose Yourself’ on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea. And also, back at that time, the younger me didn’t really feel like a show like that would understand me.”
Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity... Thanks for having me @TheAcademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here. pic.twitter.com/CmSw2hmcZo
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) February 10, 2020
Apparently, the “Lose Yourself” clip from 8 Mile we saw in the movie-music montage Sunday was already there before the Academy booked Eminem to perform. And according to him, they figured—why the hell not have the real Slim Shady (sorry) follow up the hype reel as a surprise?
“I think that’s pretty much how it went,” he said, adding later in the interview, “I don’t know, I think it was either [the Oscars’] idea or Paul and [longtime publicist Dennis Dennehy’s] idea before they brought it to me. It was presented to me that way and I said, “Oh that’s kinda dope, to not even announce it.”
One additional bit of sort-of news from the interview: The rapper still has his mind open to another film project, which he revealed after Variety asked him if he has any interest in doing more acting. Does that mean we’ll see Rabbit v. Papa Doc, Pt. II?
“Um… I’m not gonna say I don’t, because if the right script comes along and it’s something that fits with my schedule I might take another dive in it,” he said.
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