Susan Powter's dramatic downfall from fitness mogul to Uber Eats driver revealed in new documentary
A forthcoming documentary is set to illuminate the notable ’90s fitness guru Susan Powter’s retreat from the public eye.
A preview for Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter, released by Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday, October 21, features Powter, 67, employed as an Uber Eats delivery driver in Las Vegas, alongside her confession of having spent an "entire day at a welfare office."
Powter, originally from Australia, who achieved widespread recognition via numerous ’90s infomercials — famously using the slogan “stop the insanity!” to criticize trendy diets — additionally explains the reasons behind her financial struggles in the film, which Jamie Lee Curtis executive produced. (According to EW, the fitness expert reportedly earned and then depleted close to $200 million from various business ventures during her peak popularity.)
“No one realizes. I don’t receive a single cent; where is it all going?” Powter states. “I never requested, ‘Show me the actual bank balance.’ I ought to have. Unforeseen events occurred … depending on donated food.”
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Curtis, 66, is also featured raising the query, “To what extent is a person accountable for their decline, and how much is due to malicious individuals?”
The publication reports that the film will explore how “unscrupulous management and legal advisors depleted her assets.”
Powter, who established a fitness empire following her divorce from a previous spouse and a weight loss of over 130 pounds, as reported by USA Today, is additionally shown grocery shopping in the preview. As she examines a food package in her hand, she remarks, “What’s the point in checking the ingredients?”
The preview further addresses Powter’s choice to pen her 2024 autobiography, And Then Em Died … : Stop the Insanity! A Memoir. “I began writing simply as a precaution, should anything befall me,” she explains to the camera.
“I sense a change occurring. The apprehension, the destitution, the despair. It’s a massive wave encompassing the past, the events, the reality,” she continues. “I intend to reveal everything.”
During an October 2024 interview with People, Powter openly discussed the previous twenty years of her existence. The publication, at that point, observed her residence “within a low-income community for seniors, where a local charity distributes complimentary meals twice weekly.”
Powter, who filed for bankruptcy in 1995, stated, “I am familiar with despair. Despair is the walk home from the welfare office. It’s the startling realization, ‘From that peak, I’m now here? How on earth did this happen?’”
She added, “The ’90s were riddled with legal battles. They dressed me up in pearls. They molded me into someone I wasn’t. I find those clips unbearable to watch these days.”
Powter also raised multiple allegations concerning the management of her financial affairs throughout the interview. “Another party was overseeing it. I never verified the account balances,” she claimed. “I ought to have inquired. I completely admit that. I erred. I was aware of the extent of control I relinquished. I was ignorant of where payments were directed, yet I owned no assets. No funds remained for my offspring.” (Powter has three sons, one of whom she adopted as a baby after openly identifying as a lesbian in 2004.)
She additionally spoke about her occupation as a food delivery person. “I have completed 4,800 deliveries in total,” she informed the publication. “I am diligent, I handle the food meticulously, and I am proud of my effort … I am not seeking an extravagant, ostentatious lifestyle.”
