Italian actress Asia Argento being brought in to direct an episode of her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown series ‘upended’ the final season after the chef became ‘addicted’ to her, a new documentary has claimed.
The documentary – Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain – will be released on Friday and interviews dozens of Bourdain’s close friends about his life and processing his 2018 suicide.
Bourdain took his own life aged 61 at a hotel in France back in 2018.
Argento, who was dating Bourdain at the time of his death, was not interviewed for the documentary.
Their relationship forms the basis of the last part of the documentary as it paints the picture that the celebrity chef had become ‘addicted’ to the Italian actress.
The documentary – Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain – will be released on Friday. It does not feature an interview with Italian actress Asia Argento who was dating Bourdain when he killed himself in France in 2018
It also addresses how paparazzi photos emerged just five days before Bourdain’s death of Argento embracing a male friend and strolling hand in hand in Rome.
The documentary does not blame Argento for Bourdain’s suicide but some reviewers have suggested the film comes ‘dangerously close to exploiting the scenario’.
DailyMail.com has contacted Argento’s spokesperson about her portrayal in the documentary and whether she was asked to be interviewed.
Morgan Neville, the director of the film, told the Wall Street Journal that Bourdain and Argento’s relationship was like ‘quicksand’ so he only wanted to touch on it briefly.
‘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,’ he said.
‘What I included was a fraction of what was there. So if people think there’s a lot, let me tell you, there is very little compared to what’s there. I feel like I showed tremendous restraint, even though people may not know that. And I think I was very fair with having seen all the facts. I’m very comfortable with what I did.’
The documentary suggests the Argento ‘upended’ the final season of Parts Unknown after Bourdain brought her in to direct an episode in Hong Kong. Argento, Bourdain and cinematographer Christopher Boyle are pictured in Hong Together
Neville said the film was heavily legaled, including in Italy, by his lawyers and also CNN’s legal team given CNN Films is an executive producer in case Argento – or someone else – objected to how they had been portrayed.
The documentary – Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain – will be released on Friday
‘I went out of my way to make sure I put the quote in from (TV director) Michael Steed saying, ‘Tony killed Tony, you know, 60-year-old men don’t normally kill themselves because they broke up with somebody’.
‘I’m not saying she caused his suicide. Suicide is a private and I think selfish act.
‘I was merely trying to paint a picture, I think accurately, of the different factors in his life that were going on, and there were many of them. The impression of him really over the last year was him just being much more manic and much more depressive.’
Those in the film describe how Bourdain started to fall in love with Argento after they met while shooting an episode of Parts Unknown with her in Rome in late 2016.
The film features a scene of the pair in Rome filming the series.
Argento, who was dating Bourdain at the time of his death, was not interviewed for the documentary. She posted this photo on the three year anniversary of Bourdain’s deathin June
Eventually, Bourdain made the decision to stop filming Parts Unknown and bring the popular series to and end.
Bourdain and the crew were heading to Hong Kong to shoot when the director got sick and the celebrity chef brought in Argento to direct the episode.
The documentary details how the crew believe she ‘upended’ the entire process.
Bourdain fired his longtime ad award-winning cinematographer Zach Zamboni after he clashed with Argento.
‘When Tony fired Zach, it was a huge red flag,’ producer Helen Cho says in the film. ‘Because if he’s going to do that to someone like him, anyone in the inner circle is essentially disposable.’
That episode, as well as two others featuring the Italian actress, was eventually pulled by CNN after Argento was publicly accused of sexually assaulting a boy when he was 17.
The documentary details how crew members that were with Bourdain in France before he took his life said that the chef was angry when the tabloid photos emerged of Argento holding hands with a man in Rome.