Jamie Lee Curtis was surprised with an emotional message from Susan Power.
During an appearance on Tuesday, December 2 todayCurtis, 67, was talking to the host Craig Melvin about his work on the documentary Stop the Madness: Finding Susan Powter. Melvin, 46, shared that while speaking with Powter, 67, about the doc, which was released last month, he had a special message for Curtis, an executive producer on the project.
“Like you, she lit up this studio. She was so thankful and grateful to you,” he said Tuesday. “That’s what he said, he sent you something.”
Curtis looked puzzled and asked, “Did he send me something?”
Susan Powter gets completely transparent about her struggles with wellness in her new documentary, Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter. The film, which hit select theaters on Wednesday, November 19, shines a light on the public demise of “fitness queen” Powter after she lost her wellness empire and filed for bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. The documentary, produced by (…)
The show then cut to a recording of Powter expressing his gratitude to Curtis.
“My hand is in yours and I’m so grateful,” Powter said in the clip. “All we have in this life is our time, our energy and our love and you give those three things to thousands and thousands of people. Thank you Jamie Lee Curtis.”
While watching the video, Curtis visibly choked up and fought back tears.
“That’s why we’re here,” she said through tears.
Before watching the Powter clip, Curtis reflected on how he always wanted to portray Powter in a project before another opportunity came along.
“Of course, as a young actress, I was like, ‘Of course I’ll play her.’ Shaved hair, blonde hair, lots of energy…huh!” he mused noting the pair’s similarities. “So when my Newman friends asked me one day, ‘Do you remember Susan Powter?'”
Curtis shared that of course he knew Powter in his “heyday” with his Stop the Insanity infomercial. Powter rose to fame in the early 1990s after sharing her personal story of being a stay-at-home mom who gained weight after a divorce but changed her lifestyle through diet and exercise. People called into the show and paid for Powter’s workout tips and recipes.
The friend then told him that Power works in Las Vegas as a delivery boy. (Powter lost his fortune after a series of bad deals and several lawsuits.)
“He said, ‘You know she delivers Uber Eats in Vegas, and I said, ‘I’m sending you money today, get on a plane and go film her.’ That’s how the documentary started,” he recalled.
Susan Powter gets extremely candid about her decades of financial struggles in the 2025 documentary Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter. The former fitness guru went from starring in the iconic exercise infomercials of the early 1990s and hosting her own daytime talk show to walking away from Hollywood entirely within a few years. (…)
In Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter, the fitness enthusiast opened up about her struggles and recalled being on welfare before she got her delivery.
“There’s not a job I haven’t done in the last 10 years,” he told the camera as he worked. “I was delighted to find a job with Uber Eats.”
Powter explained that she doesn’t need a lot of money to be happy, she just wanted enough to pay for basic needs.
“I just want to survive, move on, get back what’s mine,” he said in the document. “There’s no way out of this. I’ve done all the changes. I’ve lived in all the places. There’s no way out of this.”