Film director, music video director, television commercial director and photographer, Anthony Mandler, who has previously worked with Rihanna, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Eminem, Usher, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent, Ne-Yo, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Lana Del Rey, has recently appeared on Anything Goes With James podcast, where he talked about his working experience with Eminem.
“I did couple videos with Eminem. I spent some time in Detroit with him for couple of shoots. He’s complicated. He was complicated at that time. I think he was not sober at that time. I think he’s now sober and he seems to be really direct but it was complicated. He’s a complicated guy. Sometimes people’s brilliance are is also what makes them odd. Like, they are not as open or as one-to-one they don’t look you in the eyes but then they walk away and do something that’s remarkable. They have a special skill set.” said Anthony Mandler.
Then he continues: “I think with Em it was, the one what I noticed more than anything was that, he was much like a recluse. We would have to go to Detroit and go out to his house to work. He always works in these small communities where he lived. You could not get him to come to LA and work. You always had to go to him which tells me something: His world is sort of smaller and smaller and that’s the part of the problem, you know, when you see fame controlling someone’s life when they actually want to do something different.”
Anthony Mandler has previously worked with Eminem on the music videos for “When I’m Gone” from Curtain Call: The Hits compilation album (2005) and “Beautiful” from Relapse solo studio album (2009).
You can watch the interview below: