The year 2000 was a legendary year for hip-hop, not only because it was waving goodbye to the bloodshed and horror of the 1990s East Coast vs West Coast calamity but because it was blessed with something incredible from Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP.
The Marshall Mathers LP was Eminem’s second album, and it was just as good as his The Slim Shady LP, if not better, and it cemented his place in hip-hop culture. The album was a smash, so much so that it sold 1.78 million copies in its first week in the US.
Furthermore, it won Eminem a Grammy award for ‘Best Rap Album’. The album’s lead single, ‘The Real Slim Shady’, is one of the most legendary songs in hip-hop. However, it is definitely not as iconic as the album’s third single, ‘Stan’.
The visuals for the single were sad, dark and emotionally powerful, just like the song and the lead role of the music video, directed by Dr Dre, was played by the actor Devon Sawa. The Vancouver native took on the role of Stan, a fan who is unhealthily obsessed with Eminem.
However, the Detroit rapper himself didn’t really want Sawa and had a rather peculiar first choice. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sawa revealed that the Encore rhymer wanted Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin to play Stan.
Speaking about working with Dr Dre, Sawa detailed, “I’ll never forget, they told me on the day that I was going to lip-sync it. I remember, after the first take I did, Dre running in and being like, ‘It was good, but can you try it with some rhythm this time?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ And that was kind of how the day went.”
He continued, “They went out to Macaulay Culkin first. I think that they wanted him, and he wasn’t available or didn’t want to do it or whatever.” Sawa revealed that Eminem and Dr Dre approached him after seeing his performance in the 2000 horror film Final Destination. Explaining this, he added, “Then Dre, who had just seen Final Destination and was a fan, suggested [me]. There happened to be somebody in the casting office that knew somebody who was friends with me, and they called me that way, and it ended up working out pretty good.”
You can watch the music video for ‘Stan’ in the video below.
