Morgan Spurlock’s alcohol abuse, explained

Morgan Spurlock, who died May 23, 2024, of complications from cancer at the age of 53, was best known for his 2004 documentary film Supersize Me, about the negative health consequences of fast food. Spurlock had alcohol use issues before the movie was made, casting doubt on the film’s conclusion.

Super Size Me‘s premise was that Spurlock, who claimed to be in peak physical condition at the outset of the film, would eat nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days straight to see how it affected his health. According to the movie, Spurlock gained weight, had liver damage, body shakes, depression, and mood swings. It was a damning indictment that McDonald’s food degrade him physically in just four weeks. Consequently, Super Size Me gave Spurlock overnight success.

The 2017 #MeToo confession

In 2017, however, Morgan Spurlock confessed to marital infidelity, sexual harassment and impropriety in the workplace, and that, while in college, he had been accused of rape. Spurlock said a former personal assistant threatened to tell the media how he treated her while she worked for him if he didn’t settle, which Spurlock said he did.

Most tellingly, though, when offering some explanation for his behaviors, Spurlock wrote,

… [I]s it because I’ve consistently been drinking since the age of 13? I haven’t been sober for more than a week in 30 years, something our society doesn’t shun or condemn but which only served to fill the emotional hole inside me and the daily depression I coped with.”

via Twitlonger/Morgan Spurlock

The revelation that Spurlock struggled with alcohol abuse suggested to many that the negative health effects of McDonald’s illustrated in Supersize Me weren’t entirely accurate, and could have been the consequences of the documentarian’s heavy drinking, instead. Meanwhile, subsequent scientific studies were unable to replicate the movie’s outcome.

Spurlock went to rehab and got sober after his #MeToo confession, according to Business Insider. But YouTube Red canceled plans for a Supersize Me sequel, Deadline reported, and Spurlock’s career never completely recovered. (Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! finally finally came out two years later.)

Spurlock wasn’t entirely forthright when he said he was healthy before he started his McDonald’s eating marathon captured in Supersize Me. A diet of only Big Macs might not have severe health effects after a month, as the movie portrayed. The film still made valid points about industrial farming and the fast food industry, and remains a central part of Spurlock’s legacy.