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Mike Tyson Is Just Trying to Get Dudes to Watch The Notebook

Photo: Earl Gibson/Getty Images, New Line Cinema

Earl Sweatshirt interviewed Mike Tyson about humanity and love and ego and strength for Citizens of Humanity magazine. It’s a sensitive interview and one with a twist, and the twist is the 2004 film about the “illusion of fear,” The Notebook. Here’s a segment:

Earl: One thing that my mom told me that stuck so much that I feel like relates to what you was just talking about is there being only two real primal emotions – fear and love. And like, the only thing that can combat fear is action. And there’s two actions. There’s fight and flight.

Mike: There’s nothing to fear but fear itself. It’s an illusion of fear. Fear is an illusion. If you gonna die, you gonna die anyway; it’s not something to fear, fear is not gonna help. It’s going to be over soon. Somebody’s going to die, or somebody’s going to get sick, someone might leave. It’s not going to last forever … This is the reality of life. I watched that movie The Notebook. You ever watched that?

Earl: I haven’t watched it.

Mike: Ah, young man, I don’t even know if you understand that stage of life yet. Very interesting thing about that movie, very interesting, it’s one of the movies that makes me really vulnerable, because you work so hard for something and you don’t want to let it go.

Earl: Mhmm.

In the philosophy according to Mike Tyson, if you haven’t watched this 123-minute pastel ode to making out, you are probably misunderstanding an entire stage of life.

Mike Tyson: On a Mission to Praise The Notebook