Even before its official premiere date, though, Roadrunner had foodies and film fans talking due to some of the choices that went into the making of the movie. Keep reading to find out what Roadrunner is about and what those closest to Anthony Bourdain are—or aren’t—saying in and about the movie.
What is the Anthony Bourdain documentary about?
Using archival footage from Bourdain’s shows and interviews, as well as behind-the-scenes clips, Roadrunner tells the story of Bourdain’s ascent through the ranks of restaurant kitchens to become one of New York City’s most acclaimed chefs before expanding his output into books and TV shows, ultimately becoming a cultural icon revered for the way he explored the world. Director Morgan Neville also interviewed many of Bourdain’s friends and acquaintances to create a fully fleshed-out picture of the man who, to the shock of seemingly everyone who knew him, ultimately chose to take his own life. “His death was such a non sequitur to what we felt we knew about him, that coming to terms with how the hell could that happen is part of what I think the film can do,” Neville—who had never met Bourdain before his death—told Entertainment Weekly recently. “Not that there’s any clean answer, but it at least makes more sense, I think, after watching the film.”
Is there a trailer for the Anthony Bourdain trailer?
Yes; see above. The trailer uses a lot of archival footage showing Bourdain’s early days as a rising star in the food world. It also offers glimpses of his friendships with fellow chefs Eric Ripert and David Chang; the latter says about Bourdain in the trailer, “It was almost never about food. It was about Tony learning to be a better person.”
Who is the director of Roadrunner?
Neville is an Oscar-winning documentarian whose resumé already includes two hugely popular docs. His 2013 look at the lives of backup singers, 20 Feet from Stardom, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Film, while 2018’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, about children’s-TV icon Mister Rogers, is the highest-grossing bio-doc of all time.
When did filming start on the Anthony Bourdain documentary?
Neville started talking to friends and relatives of the famous foodie in November 2019, about a year after Bourdain died. ”These were the hardest interviews I’ve ever done, hands down,” he told The New Yorker. “I was the grief counselor who showed up to talk to everybody.” In a recent interview,Neville also explained that his Roadrunner research included a binder filled with about 500 pages chronicling almost everything Bourdain ever said.
Is Asia Argento in the Anthony Bourdain documentary?
Asia Argento, the Italian actress and filmmaker who was dating Bourdain at the time of his death, was not asked to be interviewed for Roadrunner—a choice that has some critics scratching their heads. Neville has spoken at length about that decision, telling Thrillist, “I felt like her relationship with Tony is so complicated that the more you get into it, it takes you further and further away from understanding. I feel like if I even had one more minute of her in the film, it would throw the balance of the whole film off because I don’t know if it would bring me closer to understanding him.” Neville likewise told Vulture that he felt Bourdain and Argento’s relationship would distract from the doc’s main story and act as “narrative quicksand.” He also told The Wall Street Journal, “You can make a whole film just about that and that was not the film I wanted to make. It gets really complicated and in a way that to me is not ultimately enlightening." However, the film does reference Argento, seemingly implying that she brought some chaos with her when she was came in to direct Bourdain’s Parts Unknown series. The doc also mentions that she was photographed holding hands with another man in Rome just days before Bourdain’s death. Still, Neville maintains that he was fair with regards to their relationship and the film, telling WSJ, “I’m very comfortable with what I did." As of Roadrunner’s premiere date, Argento had not taken to social media to comment on the film. But in June 2021, she marked Bourdain’s birthday with an Instagram slideshow. “Celebrating the most incredible man I have ever met. Missing you every day,” she wrote. “You shine so bright within me. I love you my A. Happy birthday.”
Why does the Anthony Bourdain documentary use AI voice?
Roadrunner is also making headlines and courting controversy for another reason. A few quotes in the documentary, spoken in Bourdain’s voice, were created with voice-cloning software—meaning, the chef never said the words himself. As Neville told The New Yorker, “I created an AI model of his voice.” One of the “deepfake” quotesis in the trailer around the 1:30 mark. Bourdain seems to say, “You are successful, and I am successful, and I’m wondering: Are you happy?” Those words came from an email Bourdain wrote to a friend; wanting viewers to hear Bourdain “say” those words, Neville sent hours of samples of Bourdain’s voice to a software company to create the audio. Neville has spoken at length about how important he believed it was for Bourdain to “narrate” Roadrunner. As he previously told ComingSoon.net, “This idea that he’d be narrating it from beyond the grave…I think Tony would have liked that." Whether or not Bourdain would have been a fan of his own narration, fans of Bourdain are crying foul about the AI technique. Reps for the documentary are quick to point out that the AI voice takes upless than a minute of airtime in the film, while Neville has explained that he doesn’t think there’s a problem with using “deepfake” audio. “If you watch the film, other than that line you mentioned, you probably don’t know what the other lines are that were spoken by the AI, and you’re not going to know,” he told The New Yorker. After feeling the heat about that choice, though, Neville told Variety, “I checked…with his widow and his literary executor, just to make sure people were cool with that. And they were like, Tony would have been cool with that. I wasn’t putting words into his mouth. I was just trying to make them come alive.” However, Bourdain’s wife, Ottavia Busia Bourdain, refuted that statement when she tweeted just after midnight on the doc’s premiere date, “I certainly was NOT the one who said Tony would have been cool with that.”
What does Anthony Bourdain’s wife say in the documentary?
Besides her recent tweet, Ottavia Bourdain, the jiu-jitsu pro and MMA fighter who married Bourdain in 2007, has not said much about the death of her famous husband since his passing. The two separated in 2016, never got divorced and share one daughter, Ariane Bourdain, who is now 14 years old. However, Ottavia did sit down with Neville to answer questions for the Roadrunner documentary. “I should have kept an eye on him more,” she tearfully admits in the film. Ottavia also said she is unlikely to ever speak about her husband publicly again. “I think this is the last time I’ll ever talk publicly about it because that’s not the way I want to remember him,” she explained. “I want to remember when we were together, all the amazing things that we’d done and the amazing person that he was.”
How to watch the Anthony Bourdain documentary Roadrunner
Roadrunner is now playing in select movie theaters across the U.S. Because the documentary was co-produced by CNN and HBO Max, it’s likely that one or both of them will also air or stream Roadrunner in the future, but so far, no plans to do so have been announced. There’s also a chance that the film could be available for video on demand viewing; the documentary’s distributor has a deal that could allow the film to be viewed for $20 in a few weeks, but only if it makes less than $50 millionduring its opening weekend. If that happens, you might be able to catch the film on demand in August. Next, find out why Andrew Zimmern calls his new Magnolia Network series FamilyDinner “one of the best” TV shows he’s ever made!
