Throughout the 1990s, Susan Powter was hard to miss. Her weight loss infomercial and her catchphrase, “Stop the Insanity,” were everywhere. With her signature spiked blonde hair, she was well-known as a personal trainer, talk show personality, and author. Then, she pretty much vanished.
Behind the scenes, she had battles with business partners that wiped her out and prompted her to move out of the spotlight to Las Vegas and scrape by as a virtually unrecognizable UberEats driver. Zeberiah Newman’s new documentary “Stop the Insanity! Finding Susan Powter” re-introduces the former wellness guru to the world.
Newman and Powter spoke to Georgia Voice recently about the new documentary, now available on VOD.
The director looked for Powter for about nine months before he finally found her. After the success of his short film “Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story,” he made a list of people who he thought would make interesting subjects for a documentary. Powter was on that list.
“I started looking for her, and she was really difficult to find,” he said. “I was hoping she was living on a farm somewhere, off the grid and with all of her money and happiness. I had a feeling it wasn’t so good.”
Newnan eventually found an old Instagram account, a fan account that had 5,000 followers. One by one, the director sifted through each follower. One account felt very Susan Powter-ish, with pictures of soups and cauliflowers. Fortunately, the account had a phone number attached. When he texted the number, he found his subject.
Powter, now 68, was shocked to hear from the director, who wanted to meet her immediately.
“I have been gone for a good 20 years,” she said. “I got a text out of nowhere that said ‘Susan Powter?’ and I just froze. Did someone just recognize me? He said, ‘I am a filmmaker interested in meeting you – I am in Los Angeles and I can drive to Vegas.’ For some crazy reason I said 10:30 the next day and he said he’d be there with a coffee. We had lunch for four hours, and there’s the movie.”
The years in Vegas had been difficult. In recent interviews, though, Powter has stressed that while the situation left her financially broke, she was never broken.
“Broke is a given [even though] you can work, and work, and work,
Powter said. “Broken is another thing. I am just grateful that my being did not break me. My teeth did, but my being didn’t, and for that I am grateful.”
The documentary doesn’t fill in all the gaps of what happened over the years, but it does show how society can write off people once they reach a certain age, especially women.When Newnan first met Powter, he was completely taken by what he called her “unicorn-like energy.”
“She was unlike any other person I had met before or been around. I was really struck by just how original she was, but the more I investigated and got to know her and spend time with her, I was shocked at how ordinary and common her experience is, because she is dealing with issues and things that millions of Americans are dealing with,” Newnan said. “It is especially shocking because if it happened to Susan Powter, it’s happening to your mom, your aunt, your friend, your coworker. Everyone.”
Powter identifies as a lesbian and is a fierce LGBTQ+ advocate. Although she has been married twice to a man, she now says that would never happen again.
“I love women. I went from having a husband and a baby daddy, and when I made a ton of money, I hired only women because I was working like a race horse,” Powter said. “I had a TV show, radio show, books and [other] things. My entire staff was women, and I remember thinking what a lovely way to live. So I am just lesbian for life.”
Last year, Powter released a memoir and is doing what she can to wrest control of her life again. This time, though, there will be changes.
“[I’ll be doing] every single thing I have done once before that most people don’t have the privilege of doing and a second opportunity,” she said. “This time, I will be owning all of my products. There is nothing between us. If you want to do a deal, reach out and call me. I will be checking the balance every 35 seconds. It will be done properly this time, with a great deal of gratitude.”
Her message to others these days is to be a decent human being and let people be who they are.
“I support creativity and love,” Powter said. “Love is love.”