Within the Nineteen Nineties, few wellness personalities have been extra recognisable than Susan Powter, the health firebrand whose “Cease the Madness!” catchphrase turned a cultural phenomenon. Together with her platinum crop, no-nonsense supply and bestselling books, she was all over the place: on TV screens, discuss reveals, exercise tapes and journal covers. Susan wasn’t only a health professional; she was a pop-culture second, and at one level had a multi-million greenback empire.
© NBCU Picture Financial institution/NBCUniversal by way ofHowever behind the celebrity, her story took a really completely different flip. In 1995, resulting from a sequence of dangerous enterprise offers and lawsuits, she was pressured to declare chapter and ended up on welfare, delivering meals orders to make ends meet. After years out of the general public eye, she now says she’s lastly prepared to inform her full story, and reclaim her voice.
© FilmMagicThe 67-year-old is the topic of a brand new documentary, Cease the Madness: Discovering Susan Powter, which is executive-produced by Jamie Lee Curtis, and charts her fast rise, painful disappearance from the highlight and the lengthy, troublesome years that adopted. The movie premiered on the Bentonville Movie Competition on June 18, 2025, is in chosen cinemas now and is anticipated to grow to be out there to stream starting December 9, 2025.
Chatting with the As we speak present on Tuesday November 18 as a part of the documentary’s promotional tour, she revealed that she continues to be working for Uber Eats to cowl her hire, however her outlook has shifted dramatically. “I by no means checked the cash, I take duty,” she mentioned of her monetary fall.
© Getty Photographs for Bentonville Fil“Broke is one factor, damaged is one other,” she added. “I am a employee bee…I’ve by no means stopped working, not for one second. That’s why my kids are so proud.” She additionally defined that though her circumstances haven’t magically modified, her sense of function has.
The documentary explores the difficult actuality of her fame: how her revolutionary concepts about ladies’s well being have been embraced, commodified and generally exploited, and the way stepping away from the machine left her weak. It additionally highlights her resilience, from rebuilding her life within the face of economic hardship to rediscovering her artistic spark.
© NBCUniversal by way of Getty PhotographsSusan additionally spoke candidly about dealing with poverty, explaining that the challenges of the previous decade have grounded her and clarified what actually issues. Delivering meals, she famous, turned a method not simply to outlive, however to remain linked to the world round her. “You meet folks. You see life,” she mentioned. “It’s humbling, and it’s actual.”
“I reside in Las Vegas in my identical little residence, my bedstand is a cardboard field. I’m happy with it although… my coronary heart is all there, it’s lovely.” she revealed. “Nothing has modified besides… I’ve hope, actual chance. And I’m proud that I survived.”
Now, with a documentary shining a light-weight on her story and a renewed sense of chance, the ’90s health icon is embracing her subsequent chapter, one outlined not by superstar, however by honesty, resilience and hope.
