Here’s What The ‘8 Mile’ Cast Is Doing Now, 15 Years Later

Hip-hop drama “8 Mile,” which starred Eminem and was heavily inspired by his life, came out 15 years ago.

The film followed Eminem’s Jimmy in Detroit during a very pivotal week of his life and was released on Nov. 8, 2002, still earning much love and praise all these years later.

The cast was a major reason for that as they all worked together with great chemistry to create this movie. On this anniversary, let’s take a look back at what that cast is doing now. The cast included Brittany Murphy in the major role of Alex, but she, sadly, died only seven years after it was released, at age 32 in 2009.

Here’s what the actors of the other leads are doing now, 15 years later.

Eminem (Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith, Jr.)

After his starring role in this film, Eminem clearly decided that acting wasn’t exactly what he wanted to be doing full-time, as he only had a voiceover role in an episode of “Crank Yankers” in 2004 and roles as himself in 2009’s “Funny People,” a 2010 episode of “Entourage” and in 2014’s “The Interview.”

Besides that, the only acting he’s done over the last 15 years has been in his music videos. But in the music world, he’s released four solo albums since the film premiered and is set to release another one, “Revival,” on Nov. 17.

Kim Basinger (Stephanie Smith)

Once “8 Mile” was out, Basinger continued to act, mainly starring in films. Her movies included working with Jeff Bridges on the 2004 dramedy “The Door in the Floor” and with Zac Efron in “Charlie St. Cloud” in 2010.

Recently, the actress has joined the hit romance adaptation phenomenon, the “Fifty Shades” franchise, as Elena Lincoln. She’ll be in the final film, “Fifty Shades Freed,” which comes out in 2018.

Mekhi Phifer (David ‘Future’ Porter)

Phifer’s career has only continued to skyrocket since his “8 Mile” days. He was in “Honey” with Jessica Alba in 2003, had a long-running role on “ER” from 2002 to 2008 and then he moved on to the loved, but short-lived, “Lie To Me” from 2009 until 2010. From there, he had roles in “Torchwood,” “White Collar,” the “Divergent” series and “House of Lies” before finding his way to last year’s one-season CW series “Frequency.”

Now, the actor has five films in the works, all set to come out either in late 2017 or 2018.

Taryn Manning (Janeane)

The year this film came out was a big year for Manning as she had two cult classics, “8 Mile” and “Crossroads.” Both very different, yet both featuring big music stars and both becoming cult hits. Afterwards, Manning has continued to have a very steady acting career.

Another big year for her was 2005 with “Lucky 13,” “Hustle & Flow” and “A Lot Like Love.” After that, she was in the short-lived series “Drive” and then she went back to movies for a few years before she had a seven-episode stint on “Sons of Anarchy” from 2008 to 2010. Many movies and a few episodes of “Hawaii Five-0” later, she landed her major recent breakout role on Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” which she’s been on since 2013.

“8 Mile” can be purchased, or rented, and streamed online on YouTube, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play and Vudu starting from $2.99.