'90s Fitness Icon Susan Powter Reveals How Jamie Lee Curtis Helped Save Her: 'I Lost Hope, But I’m Filled With it Now' (Exclusive)

Susan Powter was just coming out of one of the most painful periods of her life, trying to survive on Uber Eats tips, when she got a message saying someone wanted to tell her story.

Powter, 66, a ’90s fitness icon who made millions with three best-selling books and her wildly successful Stop the Insanity! advertisement, lost her fortune after placing it in the hands of financial advisors, her manager and her business partners, and eventually disappeared from public life.

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Susan Powter in her 1993 ‘Stop the Insanity’ ad.

She has lived in Las Vegas for the past six years, struggling to survive on a small salary delivering food before she started receiving a Social Security check, which became her lifeline.

But last year she got a message from filmmaker Zeberiah Newman, who asked if he could film her and share her story in a documentary. “I never thought it was possible,” Powter tells PEOPLE. For years, she says, she felt rejected by society because of her age. “I learned that women are invisible and priceless after a certain age,” she says. “It’s usually a fucking capable age.”

Newman texted his friend Jamie Lee Curtis about connecting with Powter, and the actress was immediately interested — and wanted to help. “She called me two minutes later, and the next day she said, ‘Get back to Vegas and start shooting right away,'” Newman says. Curtis has become an executive producer on the project, an upcoming documentary titled Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter.

Susan Powter with Jamie Lee Curtis in July 2024.

Courtesy of Susan Powter

Curtis calls Powter an “amazing woman”: “As one of the world’s first true influencers at the beginning of what we would now call the social media era, Susan Powter was sassy and brave and woke us all up,” the actress says. “Like so many stories about women, Susan’s power and her light were diminished, denigrated and dismissed.”

A few months ago, Powter met Curtis in person and had a message for her. “I was in tears,” says Powter. “And I said ‘Thank you. Thank you for believing in me. I’ve lost faith. I’ve lost complete and utter hope.'”

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Powter, who has just published a new book And Then Em Died… Stop the Insanity! Memoirs she says that Curtis’s interest and the documentary in preparation has given her new strength. “The response that Zeb has gotten, in Hollywood and in the industry, people are like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so excited. She’s still looking good. That’s so great.’ It meant something to me, it means a lot to me.”

Susan Powter photographed for PEOPLE in July 2024.

Chloe Aftel

Newman, who is making his feature directorial debut with the documentary, says that in the ’90s Powter spoke to people who felt taken advantage of by the food industry – and today she speaks to women who feel neglected as they age.

“Everyone who felt frustrated because the system wasn’t working for them connected with her, they felt seen by her,” he says, adding that he’s watched Powter regain her voice: “She’s blossoming as a person, not a celebrity or thing in the world, as a human being itself, it’s really amazing to watch her come back into her power.”

Powter, who plans to tour the country in RVs, talking to people and selling her self-published book, says she’s eager to reconnect with her fans and hopes they’ll find inspiration in her story.

“Those women will hear my voice and say, ‘Well, hell, she hasn’t changed at all,'” he says. “What I feel now is the possibility of possibility. There were days and days and months and months and years when I didn’t feel that. I lost hope, but now I’m filled with it. I’ve never been more excited.”

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Source: HIS Education