Director Anthony Mandler says Eminem’s ‘brilliance’ makes him ‘odd’

Director Anthony Mandler opened up about working with Eminem in a recent Anything Goes With James podcast.

Mandler directed the infamous When I’m Gone video for the rapper. In his understanding, the director shared that Em seemed to him like a complicated guy.

“I did a couple of videos for him, spent some time in Detroit with him, a couple of shoots. He was complicated at that time,” shared Mandler. “I think he was not sober at that time; I think now he’s sober, and he seems to be very direct. But it was complicated, he’s a complicated guy.”

He went on to add that most brilliant people are odd and they have their own quirks. As for Slim Shady, he observed that he is an introvert.

“Sometimes people’s brilliance is what makes them odd. They are not as open or one-to-one they don’t look you in the eyes. But then they walk away, and they do something that’s remarkable,” he continued. 

“They have a special skill set. I think with Em, the one that I noticed more than anything was that he was pretty much like a recluse. We would have to go to Detroit and go out to his house to work. He always worked in these small communities where he lived. You couldn’t get him to come down to LA and work, you always had to go to him, which tells me something. His world [was getting] smaller and smaller. That’s part of the problem. When you see fame controlling somebody’s life when they actually want to do something different.”

Anthony Mandler started as a celebrity photographer an then moved on to direct music videos for Rihanna, Black Eye Peas, Snoop Dogg, Taylor Swift, Jay Z, The Weeknd, The Killers, Drake and more.

Notably, Mandler directed 15 videos for Rihanna, which shaped her visual style. His resume also boasts Eminem and includes the D12 photoshoot for Spin in 2001, and directing music videos for When I’m Gone and Beautiful.