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 This past Friday, Student Activities hosted Morgan Spurlock to a sold-out crowd in the Davis Concert Hall.  Spurlock, director of "Super Size Me," delivered his message concerning America's health with an engaging combination of relevant statistics and stand-up antics.  The Sun Star was lucky enough to obtain a one-on-one interview with Mr. Spurlock before the show to talk about college eating, making low-budget movies, and why America's so fat.  What follows is the edited transcript of that event.

SS:  It's hard to convince a poor college student to eat healthy, especially when there are so many cheap options to do otherwise.  How do you think this can be countered?

Spurlock:  Well, I think that the most important thing that a college kid could realize is that building good habits now is going to carry out through the rest of your life.  Even on a budget, you can do things to eat [well] cheaply.  One of the things that I advise many college students to do…is to get a group of friends together, six or so, so that there's one night a week where someone cooks.  And we're not talking about cooking out of a box…we're talking fresh vegetables.  Everybody puts money into a pot…and gets into the habit of cooking good food.  Then you can spend time with friends and eat healthy for much less.  Trust me…I too was in that situation of going through the "Taco Hell" drive-through at 2:00 a.m.  But the important thing to remember is that the cost you'll pay later is much higher than the cost you'll pay now.

SS:  You've said many times that it's important to "get them young."  As you just said, many habits that people have in college are already entrenched, especially for our generation who has grown up on fast food.  How hard do you think it is to change those habits?

Spurlock:  Well, since the movie's come out [in May], I've met so many college kids, adults, you name it, who have been very impacted by the film.  I think that it's really starting to clue people into that…wow, this food could really make me sick.  There's the old analogy, "You can't see the forest for the trees."  And I've made a film where I go, "Look, there's a tree!"  And people are saying, "Oh my God, you're right." 

And that's why, to me, it's so important to get the message out.  To schools, to junior highs, to get the parents involved.  Where we really have to focus is on schools…on what we're feeding kids in junior high, in high schools.  Because, you know, good luck at college…trying to find a banana at midnight.  You know, after spending all night studying, and you have to go back and finish a paper now, where are you going to go?  What are you going to eat?

SS:  Or even in a cafeteria where you have the choice between pizza and salad, what do think most kids are going to go for?

Spurlock:  Exactly.  I think even in colleges we need to start building positive habits.  You know, one of the things I think needs to happen…in the junior highs and high schools…is there needs to be a prerequisite called "Survival 101."  And kids from all across America have to take this class.  And if you go to college…then you take "Survival 102" your freshman year.  And in this class…you cook, you learn about food.  You learn about why you should or shouldn't eat certain things.  We would go to the Farmers' Market and teach you about buying seasonal vegetables.  We go to a grocery store and you learn about the produce that's there.  You learn about why you should do all of your shopping around the perimeter of a store and never go into the middle where things are in boxes and bags.  These are life lessons that aren't being taught to kids.  And especially when [kids] are going off to college, now we're on our own…to teach kids what to do when they're out of the house.

What we're doing is we're educating kids in the classroom, but abandoning them in the lunchroom.

SS:  You did a lot of damage to your body in those 30 days.  Have you done any follow-up as far as residual problems since the experiment 18 months ago?

Spurlock:  My cholesterol, my liver function, my blood pressure, all those are back to normal.  It took me fourteen months to lose all the weight.  But probably the one thing that continues to come back is…my ability to put on weight is so easy now.  I can gain three or four pounds in a weekend.  And I asked my doctor, "Why is it so easy to put on weight now?"  The last nine months losing the last four and a half pounds of the twenty-four pounds I gained was yo-yo dieting.  I'd lose two, I'd gain three.  I'd lose three, I'd gain four.

SS:  Your body gets accustomed.

Spurlock:  Yeah.  [My doctor] said…what you don't realize, and I think most people don't, is that when you lose weight, those fat cells that are in your body, they don't go away.  They just get skinny.  They're waiting for me to overeat, they're waiting for me to take in more calories and I'm going to expand.  So now I can put on three, four pounds like that.

SS:  Do you think people are really starting to understand that health is a long-term commitment?  That you can't yo-yo diet and expect lasting results?

Spurlock:  I think…people are looking for the quick fix.  People are still looking for the magic pill.  Something that's going to suddenly make them healthy overnight.  I think the film has really opened people's eyes to the long-term impact.  That's what I tell people who watch the movie..."What you see happen to me can happen to you…in 10, 30, 40 years."  "Super Size Me" is a flash-forward of your life, of what can happen to you over an extended period of time…if you eat a diet that is filled with excess fat, sugar, sodium, caffeine, you name it.  Elevated blood pressure, blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, diabetes…all these can be yours if you continue on this path.

SS:  You mention at the beginning of the film that your Mom cooked almost exclusively.  Why do you think that most families are reluctant to do that today?

Spurlock:  I think we think it's too hard.  We've reached a point in our society where we put our health third behind our time and our money.  "I don't have time to cook.  I don't have time to shop.  I don't have time to exercise.  I don't have time to eat well."  It's go go go go go.  "I've got to work longer to make more money to buy more things."  We justify our existence by what things we can accumulate.  What can I buy with all this money? 

So now our health is last…and we don't realize the cost we pay by doing that.  The bigger problem is that we don't know how to cook, but B, we just don't want to spend the time on it.  When we do get in the kitchen…since we don't know how to cook…we spend hours in there cooking. 

My Mom, when I was growing up…would cook chicken on Sunday...  Monday, guess what?  Chicken sandwiches.  Tuesday?  Chicken-noodle soup.  Wednesday?  [Chicken] stew.  Thursday?  Chicken Pot-Pie.  Come Friday, I was like, "Please tell me the chicken's gone."  And she would say, "Yep, no more chicken.  Today it's roast beef."  And then there'd be a week of that.  She knew how to make it easy on herself.  We don't know how to cook cheaply and we don't know how to improvise.  Now, we have a generation of kids who have gone out to eat…who will raise a generation that will eat out even more.  What you need to realize is that, as a parent, if you eat out three or four times a week, then your kid will eat out three or four times a week or more without even trying.  You lead by example. 

SS:  Alaska is kind of rare in that there's been an isolated Native population only recently exposed to Western food.  Even more recently to fast food.  And there is a high incidence of things like diabetes and other diet-related health problems that have arisen within that population.  Do you think that corporations like McDonald's know about these possible links?

Spurlock:  Same thing here as in Fiji.  Countries where there was never this type of food…  Japan is a fish and rice based culture much like here without the rice.  Suddenly there's an incredible rise in heart disease…with things that are very synonymous with the American diet.  Do corporations know about this?  Yeah, I think they've known about the correlation between these two problems for a long time.  I don't think they made it clear. 

They make the argument, "Well, everybody knows this food's bad for you."  I don't think we know, how bad is it?  Is it bad enough to gain a couple of pounds?  They say, "Of course Morgan gained weight.  What did he expect eating all that food?"  You never hear them say, "Well, of course it was giving him heart disease.  He was eating all that McDonald's."  To me…that's the difference.  They always [say], "It's your choice.  It's personal responsibility."  But you really don't give the people the tools to arms themselves against making the smart choice, against understanding what this food is.  

Once you leave America…going to McDonald's and these American chains is seen as an honor.  You go [to McDonald's] because you're never going to get the chance to go to the actual country.  This is [their] chance to take a bite of freedom.  They're getting their piece of the American dream, they're just getting it right here (holds his gut).

SS:  How do get away with using so much iconography from McDonald's without them…

Spurlock:  …getting pissed?

SS:  Yeah.  I mean, those are clear symbols of corporations that you're using.  How did you avoid lawsuits?

Spurlock:  Well, it's based on copyright law in the United States.  We had fair use of trademarked and copyrighted material for parody or satire.  This film is social commentary, it's social satire.  We're providing a social service to you, the viewer, providing information to you that a corporation never would.  To convey this information to you, to convey this truth, we have to use the symbology.  We have to use their imagery to get this message out.  So we're well within our rights.

SS:  So the law really is on your side in this case?

Spurlock:  Yeah, the law is well on our side.  For now.  We'll see if that changes.  We'll see if they start changing the laws.  But for now, we're all within our rights.  The logo, the artwork, the dolls, it's all fair use.  See, if this was a scripted film it would probably be a different story.  If it was a fiction film, it would be something else.  But since this is a nonfiction movie, since we're bringing factual information to the public in a way that…they would never be privy to otherwise, we're well within our rights.

SS:  You started out pretty small, with MTV…

Spurlock:  …even before that.  I was directing…commercials, music videos, industrials, you name it…

SS:  …well, how do you suggest for somebody that has a great idea to make a movie for, like you, next to nothing?

Spurlock:  The thing is…if we hadn't been traveling all over the country…the budget of our film would have been only $30,000.  With the travel…it's $65,000.  So, you can do things very cheaply.  "Tarnation," a movie that's out in theatres right now…was made for $300.  He shot the whole thing himself…he cut the whole thing on IMovie.  It's an impressive feat to accomplish that.  What I would tell students is don't put yourself in a cage of money, because that's what happens.  The greatest things that I ever made are the ones that I didn't have a lot of money to do.

SS:  Make it a hobby first.

Spurlock:  Yeah.  Get your friends, get everybody involved.  All you need is a camera and a computer and a good idea and you've got a movie.  All you need now is to invest the time to do it.  And if you can do that, then you'll be able to make something that will reach a lot of people more than the ability has ever been there.  I was talking to these kids at UAA last night and they were…asking me…how to get a movie distributed.  And I say, "Make the movie first, then worry about getting it distributed."  We put hurdles in front of ourselves to make ourselves safe.  So…just dive in.  Just do it.

The Sun Star would like to thank Morgan Spurlock for taking the time out to personally speak with us and Jeff Stepp for helping to make this interview possible.  For a complete recording of the interview, check our website at www.uaf.edu/sunstar.

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