'Elvis’ director compares the rock and roll singer to Eminem

Elvis biopic director Baz Luhrmann said that the rock and roll singer and Eminem have similarities.

Luhrmann's film delves into the story of Elvis growing up being engrossed in "Black music and cultural spaces," as well as "country music and white gospel music," which also happened to influence Elvis' life and craft.

It also touches on his personal and public relationships as he rises to stardom.

He also said that the says the rock and roll musical artist also paved the way for artists like the Detroit, Michigan rapper.

"[Elvis] absorbed it and mixed it," Luhrmann said.

"...Just like Eminem grew up in a Black community — their personalities are formed by what they absorb."

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Luhrmann also said that while he did the academic research for the film, he lived in the south and had an office at the back of Graceland, and he met with Elvis' friend, a now-elderly Sam Bell, who was friends with Elvis as they hit the music scene in Memphis.

"They were a gang, and they ran off to juke joints, and they went to pentecostal tents," Luhrman said of Bell and Elvis.

"And see, this is the thing about young people: they absorb all kinds of things, especially someone with a big hole in their heart like Elvis, who had conditional love from his mother and was always searching and seeking and absorbing," Luhrmann said.

Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) also made his own contribution to the film in the end credits for the song "The King and I," which features CeeLo Green.

It was the rapper's first release in a year.

Elvis is hitting the big screens on June 24.

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