Un-Happy Meal

Political statement, performance art, or just plain crazy? Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock spent one month eating nothing but food from McDonald's while investigating America's tendency towards obesity. Carol Murphy talks to him about polemics, performance and profit.

Sitting on period furniture in the Eisenhower suite at the Dorchester is a strawberry blonde handlebar moustache. It is attached to the face of a very healthy, fit and trim-looking Mr Morgan Spurlock - reassuring in light of what he has just put himself through. This is the man who for thirty days and nights ate nothing but McDonald's meals. Never mind the 40 day fast and temptation of Christ in the desert; Morgan Spurlock's darkly comic documentary Super Size Me began as the fast food junkie's hedonistic dream, only to end in a nightmare of epic proportions. It is a shocking indictment against the fast food conglomerates, and a cautionary tale warning against what happens when you give in to the perils of a fast food diet.

In the US when you order a meal at McDonald's you may or may not be asked if you would like your meal 'supersized'. This is an offer to up your portions to the maximum size. Spurlock based his eating habits for the month on a list of self-enforced conditions, one of which was to supersize his meal when offered. He also limited his exercise regime to that of the average American. So whilst building up a hilarious satire and an investigation of how McDonald's effectively renders its consumers addicted to their products, Spurlock went from being an incredibly fit 6'2" 32 year-old to an exhausted, blotchy, depressed man with no sex drive, 30lbs of extra weight, sky rocketing cholesterol and blood pressure, and a liver that was rapidly transmogrifying into fois gras.

Spurlock, an award winning filmmaker, writer and producer based in New York, first had the idea when he was watching a news article, whilst suffering from the overindulgence of Thanksgiving, about two girls suing McDonald's.

Morgan Spurlock: Well for me the film, when I got the idea, was two fold. It was: I am going to make a film about fast food and obesity where I will be eating this food to see what happens. And my initial goal in making the film was hopefully to make people start to think about what we are shovelling in our mouths in America, because we don't.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 100