Morgan Spurlock, who is an actor, screenwriter and director, took his first steps in the field of cinema in 1994. He worked as a production assistant on the set of the film “Léon”, directed by Luc Besson .
A famous American director leaves us
The iconic American director, Morgan Spurlock, died at the age of 53 following a complication linked to cancer. He had gained his fame through his daring documentary about McDonald’s in 2004, titled “Super Size Me.” “Today is a dark day, we had to say goodbye to my brother Morgan. The world has lost a true creative prodigy and an exceptional man. I had the honor and pride of working with him,” shared his brother Craig Spurlock, a collaborator on some of his projects. Al Jean, the writer and producer of the renowned animated series The Simpsonspaid tribute on his X account (ex-Twitter) by calling Morgan Spurlock“extremely gifted, funny and erudite man”expressing his sorrow at this “huge loss”.
Morgan Spurlock, born in West Virginia in 1970, has held diverse positions as director, screenwriter and actor. He took his first steps in the world of cinema in 1994, as a production assistant on the film Leon by Luc Besson, with Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman in key roles.
The real turning point in his career came with the production of his documentary Super Size Me, in which he distinguished himself by only eating the richest menu offered by McDonald’s in the United States, the famous “super size”, for all his meals for a month. His physical consumption was voluntarily limited to 5,000 steps per day, the equivalent of the average travel of a New Yorker. The objective: to examine the impact on one’s health. Morgan Spurlock, then aged 32, had gained more than ten kilos, had seen his cholesterol level rise, his liver deteriorated due to excess fat and reported sexual problems following his experience.
His film, nominated for an Oscar in the category “best documentary”, fueled the debate on the harmful consequences of the fast-food industry on public health, especially at a time when obesity in the United States was becoming a concern.
But in 2007, a Swedish university conducted a similar experiment, where a group of students had to eat only fast food, not just McDonald’s, for 30 days. If students gained between 5% and 15% extra weight and felt “tired and bloated”, none experienced the same symptoms as those described by Morgan Spurlock in his documentary. Some of his claims were also called into question in 2017, after Morgan Spurlock admitted “having consumed alcohol regularly since the age of 13”. “I have never been sober for more than a week in 30 years,” did he declare.
He has directed a total of fifteen documentary films, generally focusing on himself, with among them Where is Osama bin Laden? in 2008, in which he traveled the world in search of the former leader of Al-Qaeda. His latest film, Super Size Me 2, carried out in 2017, revealed the marketing tactics of fast-food giants, with the aim of presenting their products in a more favorable way in terms of health.
