CW: This article includes mention of suicide and sexual harassment.
It’s been just over a month since the world lost the beloved chef, story-teller, and outspoken public figure, Anthony Bourdain, to suicide. The tragedy was felt deeply by people all around the world.
This week a lengthy interview with Bourdain that was conducted back in February has just been posthumously released and it’s full of the kind of unreserved honesty that made Bourdain such a valuable voice.
Didn't think I'd ever miss someone I never met but here we are, @Bourdain. Here we are. pic.twitter.com/p6nYpFw3IN
— Sansa Stark, Queen in the North (@MarchingHere) July 17, 2018
The interviewer, Maria Bustillos, had the privilege of sitting down with Bourdain for a few hours and getting his frank opinion in conversation that ranged from politics to the #MeToo movement to global culture and food.
The interview is a long read (and a great read), but there are a few particularly striking comments that are well worth highlighting.
Starting with the end, where Bourdain, (whose then-girlfriend Asia Argento was one of the women to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual assault), gives an elaborately graphic description of how he fantasises Harvey Weinstein might die.
“My theory of how he goes is uh, he’s brushing his teeth in a bathroom,” Bourdain describes, “he’s naked in his famous bathrobe, which is flapping open, he’s holding his cell phone in one hand because you never know who on the Weinstein board has betrayed him recently, and he’s brushing his teeth.”
“—He suddenly gets a massive fucking stroke—he stumbles backwards into the bathtub, where he finds himself um, with his robe open feet sticking out of the tub, and in his last moments of consciousness as he scrolls through his contacts list trying to figure out who he can call, who will actually answer the phone. And he dies that way, knowing that no one will help him and that he is not looking his finest at time of death.”
Bourdain also condemned Donald Trump with his forthright thoughts on how his presidency might end.
“I think Trump’s going down for the money. Collusion is tricky to prove, it’s the money,” he said. “And once they get too close, in my view he will declare victory, congratulate himself on the fantastic job he’s done and resign, saying the job is too small for him. Just what he did in Atlantic City! I got mine, big success for me, and leave behind a shambles.”
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
~ Anthony Bourdain pic.twitter.com/MaBFSZwcUD— Skip Bolden (@skipbolden) July 11, 2018
However, Bourdain, ever the empath, gave some insightful understanding into the minds of Trump voters. He described how Trump’s appeal is linked to people’s desire to disrupt a system that has historically mistreated them.
“They’re not foolish,” he said. “They recognize an anarchist. They recognize somebody who is likely to pull down the whole rotten temple that they despise so deeply that they will repeatedly shoot themselves in both feet for the pleasure.”
Back on these Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown episodes and it's still hard to believe a man who seemed to have it all give up. You just never know what people are going through inside.
— K.M.Z.?? (@bootstongan) July 17, 2018
Finally, Bourdain’s direct comments on Bill and Hilary Clinton have caused quite the stir. Bourdain condemned both the Clintons for their strategic character assassination of the women that tarnished Bill Clinton’s reputation, and called Bill “entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting”.
“Bill Clinton, look, the bimbo eruptions—it was fucking monstrous. That would not have flown today. A piece of shit. Entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting, and the way that he—and [Hillary Clinton]—destroyed these women and the way that everyone went along, and, and are blind to this! Screamingly apparent hypocrisy and venality. How you can on the one hand howl at the moon about all these other predators. And not at least look back.”
“OK, let’s say, well, it was all consensual: powerful men, starstruck women, okay fine, let’s accept it at its most charitable interpretation. Fine. He is a very charming man, I met him, he’s fucking magnetic. … As is [Hillary]. When you’re in the room, you think wow, she’s really warm and nice and funny. But the way they efficiently dismantled, destroyed, and shamelessly discredited these women for speaking their truth … is unforgivable.”
man i fucking miss anthony bourdain it’s so rare that a human like this blesses our presence
— officer bill (@BillRatchet) July 17, 2018
Throughout the whole interview, Bourdain’s answers are striking, insightful and uninhibited. Reading Bourdain’s provocative words posthumously is a reminder that we have lost one of the most ruthlessly honest voices our time.