Eminem faces off against a mysterious figure in the new music video "Phenomenal," played by none other than John Malkovich.
The song is one of four tracks the rapper and 8 Mile actor wrote for the soundtrack of the new boxing movie Southpaw, which is set for release on July 24.
In the Bourne Identity-like clip, released recently on Apple Music and posted on the rapper's website, Eminem plays a man on the run. He shows off some impressive martial arts moves and other stunts in an identified city in Asia and encounters Malkovich, who is sitting in a rickshaw and eating lo mein from a take-out box, with chopsticks. Because...he's John Malkovich. (Watch the video above: Warning: Contains expletives.)
"Impressive," he drawls. "Pointless, but impressive. Noodles?"
"Who are you?" Eminem asks.
"A way out, if you so choose," Malkovich replies.
A trailer for Southpaw features another one of Eminem's new songs, "Kings Never Die," which features Gwen Stefani.
Neither Eminem nor Malkovich star in the actual movie. However, Eminem was originally supposed to play the main character, boxer Billy Hope, producer Alan Riche told Business Insider. The role went to Jake Gyllenhaal.
The movie depicts a father-daughter relationship. Eminem has a 19-year-old daughter, Hailie Mathers.
"We knew how important being a father to his daughter is," Alan said. "We didn't fear going to Eminem and saying, 'This is an amazing role for you and if you got yourself in shape it would be a tour-de-force.'"
He told Business Insider he and his son and co-producer Peter Riche pitched to Eminem back in 2010 and that four weeks before he was to begin training for the movie, they got a phone call that he no longer wanted to do it. The rapper was busy at the time making his eight studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2. He has not commented.
"We were told that he really loved it, but that he feels he's a musician first and an actor second and he had a lot of inner energy going on for his next album and that's where his muse was taking him," Alan told the outlet.