It’s hard to come up with something that becomes a cultural mainstay, and Eminem did it unintentionally: His 2000 hit “Stan” is about an obsessive fan, and it was such a popular and descriptive depiction of that sort of person that the word “stan” is now commonly used to describe passionate devotees. The word “stan” has become its own thing distinct from Eminem at this point, as Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania stars Evangeline Lilly and Kathryn Newton proved in a recent interview.
In a PopBuzz presser, the two were asked about the word and it turned out they had complementary sets of knowledge: Lilly hadn’t heard of the term “stan” but was aware of the Eminem song, while Newton is up on her slang but didn’t know the word’s origins.
Newton explained how the word is used, which prompted Lilly to wonder if it was the Eminem song that spawned the word. The burden of confusion shifted from Lilly to Newton at that point, who had apparently never made the connection between Eminem and the word “stan” before until after Lilly explained what the song is about.
Quantumania, meanwhile, could use some more stans, it seems.
Check out Lilly and Newton’s interview above.