The new Eminem documentary, Stans, gives a handful of lucky fans an opportunity to reflect on their deep admiration for their favorite artist — but finding the right line between love and obsession was a nuanced balance for director Steven Leckart.
“The reason why ‘Stan’ exists and is such an iconic song is that there’s a sense that it could be real, right? And, of course, there’s people out there that are obsessed,” Leckart exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the documentary’s Thursday, August 7, theatrical release. “I mean, there were people that claimed to be related to [Eminem] for sure. Everything under the sun. When you have 45 million followers on Instagram, and you’re one of the most famous people in the world, you’re going to attract a lot of variety. After a while, nothing surprised me.”
The film, featuring candid interviews with Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) about his life in the spotlight, sets out to explore the complicated relationship between the rapper and his legion of listeners over the years. It’s a dynamic that first came to light with the release of his 2000 single “Stan,” a song about an obsessed fan whose hero-worship drives him to his early death. The track, featuring Dido, served as the catalyst for the term “stans,” a phrase that still exists in the pop culture zeitgeist today to explain a next-level infatuation with celebrities.
The concept for the documentary, Leckart said, began “many years ago,” when producer Paul Rosenberg wanted to do something “unconventional” — a deep dive into fan culture.
“They kept running into these people at shows, and some of them would have [Eminem’s then-signature] bleach blonde hair, or they were just die hards that would show up in random countries in Europe [from America], and so they were starting to get this idea of some people that they might want to include in the film,” he explained. “And they did some filming back in the day.”
When Leckhart joined the project five years ago, the casting process was kicked into “high gear.” The Emmy-winning director and his team put a link online through Eminem’s own social media accounts to an online questionnaire. “And within three to four months, we had, I think, over 9,000 submissions, pretty much from all over the world,” he said.
When it came to choosing who would actually be featured in the documentary, Leckhart stressed they were looking for variety. “Like, ‘We already have a person who’s got a lot of tattoos [of Eminem] and she’s in the Guiness Book of World Records, so let’s not focus on tattoos,’” he explained, adding that they would “look for people who reflected Eminem’s story or the music in different ways.”
Eventually, they were able to build “this awesome mixtape of people” from the 22-tattoo girl to fans who have traveled to Detroit so they could stand on the land where Eminem’s house was once located.
Despite some of Eminem’s most loyal followers participating in the project — and a section of the doc dedicated to discussing the possibility those fans would meet their idol — the “Lose Yourself” artist does not cross paths with any of his fellow interviewees in the film. Leckhart said it was a topic he didn’t even broach with Eminem, because he didn’t “want the movie to become a conduit for our characters to meet him.”
“I didn’t want to make what would feel like a reality show moment, for lack of a better word,” he said, noting that one particular fan’s story, Zolt, involved meeting Eminem in a special way that deserved its own moment to shine.
“Having already met him and having that picture, and the way he told the story in the interview, was like a dream. It was so bizarre,” he recalled of hearing Zolt tell his story of crossing paths with Eminem. “The way he describes it, it was like he had ascended to heaven and met an angel. So there was no way that a documentary film crew would be able to capture something that magical that had already happened.”
Eminem, for his part, revisits more than just his at times complicated history with his fans y in the doc – the rapper also discusses his past addiction, life as a father to daughter Hailie Jade and his public persona. According to Leckart, nothing was actually off limits.
“What’s beautiful about [Eminem] and his team from the jump of meeting them and then developing the project and having a lot of conversations, it’s just been collaborative throughout the entire process,” he told Us. “So there was really more, ‘Steven, tell us what you think, tell us what you want to do, tell us.’ And then we just would have dialogue. But most of the dialogues were ‘yes’ and or ‘Have you thought about this?’ It wasn’t like, ‘Here’s a list of things and we’re going to break your heart because we’re not doing them.’ I’ve been very fortunate that it’s truly one of the most collaborative projects I’ve ever been on.”
Leckhart is incredibly proud of the project as a whole, which at its core is a celebration of the impact Eminem has had on people through his music and lyrics. He hopes viewers will see it that way, too.
“To be honest, the interviews we did with the stans were so deep,” he shared. “So what we see is, I think, ultimately, the best of those stories. But every single person we interviewed had an emotional moment.”
Stans will have a limited theatrical release on Thursday, August 7, through Sunday, August 10.
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