Mark Wahlberg Wasn't The First Choice For Micky Ward In The Fighter

Once upon a time, "The Fighter" might have starred ... Eminem? Development on the film began in 2003, while Eminem was fresh off his lead role in "8 Mile," which won an Oscar that year for Best Original Song with "Lose Yourself." (Eminem skipped the ceremony, but the Detroit rapper would perform the song at the Academy Awards in 2020.) He had also achieved success the year before with "The Eminem Show," which won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and was the world's bestselling album of 2002. As he racked up the #1 album, song, and movie virtually simultaneously, Hollywood wanted to continue riding that success and working with Eminem. And it seems he was looking to channel his own inner Rocky, too.

In an appearance on the Hollywood Gold podcast in February 2023 (via The Hollywood Reporter), producer Todd Lieberman discussed the film's seven-year road to the big screen. During that time, it would change hands from director Darren Aronofsky to David O. Russell and stars Matt Damon and Brad Pitt to Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. According to Lieberman, neither Damon nor Wahlberg was the first choice to play real-life boxer Micky Ward in "The Fighter:"

"The first person that we thought would star in this film was Eminem. Eminem was going to be Micky Ward. [...] That was a moment in time where he had come off of '8 Mile,' and he was interested in making movies, and he wanted to do a boxing movie. So that was something we pursued for a minute. And there was real life in that for a minute."

It should be noted that "8 Mile" was something of an anomaly in Eminem's career. Written by Scott Silver and directed by Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential"), the film drew from Eminem's background in Detroit, where he lived as Marshall Mathers on 8 Mile Road. Though his character in "8 Mile" is named Jimmy, a.k.a. "B-Rabbit," the optics of it were almost that of a biopic where Eminem was playing himself. Since then, his film work has been limited to a few documentary appearances and cameos (as himself) in a couple of Seth Rogen films, "Funny People" and "The Interview."

Ultimately, Eminem chose to focus on his musical career more than acting. Silver, meanwhile, would go on to do a re-write of Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson's script for "The Fighter," with the three of them and Keith Dorrington (who helped conceive the story) sharing an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

In some ways, Mark Wahlberg was better suited to the role of Micky Ward in "The Fighter" anyway. Since he was born in Boston, he could provide the film and its Greater Boston setting with some regional authenticity. Wahlberg told IGN that he even had Martin Scorsese read the screenplay, but the director was not interested in trying to top his own boxing-movie masterpiece, "Raging Bull," or in revisiting a Massachusetts setting with Wahlberg after their sterling Boston-set remake, "The Departed."

"The Fighter" would have also put Darren Aronofsky on familiar ground, since it came just two years after his Mickey Rourke-led sports drama, "The Wrestler." Aronofksy retained an executive producer credit for "The Fighter," but in the end, he was just one link in a chain of directors and actors that began with Eminem, of all people.