We wanted to take a typical sports-movie narrative
and keep that same kind of arc,
but also turn it on its head.
What we're exploring in Bodied is:
what if pursuing the talent you've discovered
actually destroys the rest of your life,
and how far would you go with that?
"So, you read essays all day
about lettin' the chopper spray?
Respect. Next question."
One of the things that, the director, Joseph Kahn
was very interested in is the idea
that I'm this super-white, nerdy guy
who lives between two worlds:
a very college-educated, white-dominated, liberal sphere
and then the battle-rap world,
which is the complete opposite of that in every way.
"There's plenty of other N-words you
can be asking me about, N-words."
"I guess it just made sense to start
with my favourite writer."
Joseph Khan has just been a fan
of the battle scene for years,
which was always a huge feather in our cap:
that the biggest music-video director
of all time was also a big battle-rap fan.
So, fast forward to 2015.
Joseph has made the Power Ranger short film,
done a few, very big Taylor Swift music videos.
So he's on the top of the game.
He can choose any project he wants.
And what he decides is, "I wanna do something
independently, so I need a writer to work with."
He wasn't even thinking about battle rap at this point.
But he watched one of my battles,
and someone had a line insulting me where they reference
the fact that I'm a writer outside of battle rap.
And it made Joseph realize, "Oh shit! Kid Twist is a writer.
I should contact him and see if he wants to work together."
"I bet his novel is shit."
"His novel IS shit!
"It makes that graffiti in the men's room on top of the sink
comparatively read like it was Oliver Twist."
So he sent me a DM on Twitter that just said,
"Hey, do you write scripts? Email me." [Laughs]
And that was the genesis of the movie.
Originally he had a totally different thing
he wanted me to work on, but as we started talking,
he realized we have so much in common in terms of our
interest in battle rap that it would be amazing
to write a movie together about that subject.
And it's something — because he's so into the scene,
it's something he's always had in the back of his mind.
And the more we talked, the more he realized
this is the time to do it.
"That shit was crazy as fuck.
That's why I watch rap battles.
You bodied his entire family."
We first got the idea — "okay, we're gonna
write a movie about battle rap."
That was all we had.
And I started pitching things that were
very different, not about me at all.
And Joseph said, "You know what?
Your story actually has something to it:
you coming from this world that is so concerned with
not being racist, not being misogynist,
not being homophobic — and rightly so —
but then entering this battle-rap ring where
all the gloves come off and anything goes,
and might kind of be the last place in our society
where anything goes," you know?
So Eminem did get involved early on, but unofficially.
Joseph has done some of his biggest videos,
so they're friends behind the scenes.
So when Joseph started working on a battle-rap movie,
of course he would send Em drafts of the script,
just to get his thoughts.
And once we had a rough cut of it, Joseph
took it back to Em and showed him.
And that's when he got so excited about the movie
that he wanted to come on board as a producer,
which is — I mean, it's such a huge stamp of approval for all of us.
And not only that, but for me personally,
"My Name Is" came out when I was 13 years old.
That's the first rap song that I really got into,
that brought me into the genre.
So to have him be the rapper
who got me into rap in the first place,
and then, when 8 Mile came out, got me into
battle-rap in the first place,
and then, 16 years after 8 Mile,
for him to come on board as a producer
to the battle-rap movie I wrote is mind-blowing
and just sort of this crazy circle
that's now been completed.
[Upbeat music]