Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan play a couple whose passion turns violent in the dramatic clip.By Shaheem Reid
Eminem
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images
Eminem's new video for "Love the Way You Lie" tells the story of two lovers (played by Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan) whose passion turns violent as their relationship vacillates between ecstasy and agony.
The cinematic video, which debuted Thursday night (August 5) on MTV, starts with a close-up of the song's co-star, Rihanna, singing the chorus in front of a burning house. We then see Fox sitting in the living room of a home with a flame in the palms of her hands. From there, Eminem raps in a field.
The video transitions back to the story of seemingly doomed lovers, and we see Fox and Monaghan lying in bed asleep. The first to wake, Fox sees the name "Cindy" written on her boyfriend's hand and a phone number underneath. She angrily wakes him up, and scenes of them fighting and then making love intertwine, showing how their relationship goes from one extreme to the next.
As the second verse starts, we get a flashback of how the couple met: in a bar. The attraction was instant, and they proceed to shoplift vodka from a liquor store. Later, we return to the bar, as Monaghan hits a man over the head with a bottle just because he was playing pool with Fox.
Toward the end of the second verse, Eminem joins Rihanna, performing in front of the burning house.
As the video progresses, we see more of the war going on between the two lovers. A flame eventually covers Fox, Monaghan and Eminem in three separate instances. The video's last shot goes right back to the beginning of the clap, as the lovers lie in bed asleep.
"I think we tried as hard as we could to not glorify the violence, to try and explain that this was a relationship that is by no means ideal and a relationship that probably should have ended a lot sooner than it did," Monaghan told MTV News recently. "The concept of 'Love the Way You Lie' was essentially a look at the relationship that Eminem was in with his wife, Kim, so I kind of felt like I was playing Eminem a little bit, and Megan Fox was kind of playing Kim.
"It's the story of them getting to know each other, and it's the story of their tumultuous relationship, and it was the story of the breakdown of their relationship," he continued. "Ultimately, what I think he's trying to say in the song ... is that he should have walked away a little bit quicker than he did and not let it get as messy as it did."
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