Did Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown episode in Hong Kong, which Asia Argento directed, mark the beginning of the end of the celebrity chef’s life?
- In Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, Bourdain’s Parts Unknown crew mates reveal how the episode created deep rifts within a previously tight-knit group
- ‘The second that I knew that [Argento] was slated to direct, I knew it was doomed; I knew someone was doomed,’ the series’ regular director Michael Steed says
A unique behind-the-scenes look at the life of Anthony Bourdain reveals that it was while filming an episode of his Parts Unknown TV series in Hong Kong that his life seemed to begin to unravel.
The American celebrity chef and television personality took his own life in his hotel room, aged 61, while he was filming an episode of his Emmy-winning CNN food and travel series near Strasbourg, in France, in June 2018.
In Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, family, friends and colleagues describe the obsessive and tumultuous love affair he had with the Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento, and that “red flags” about their relationship were raised in Hong Kong while filming Parts Unknown in January 2018.
The episode, which ended up being directed by Argento, was to show Bourdain’s experiences in Hong Kong through the eyes and lens of legendary cinematographer and long-time Hong Kong resident Christopher Doyle, who Bourdain had long admired and had asked to act as cinematographer for the episode.
In a section of the audiobook by Bourdain’s trusted assistant and confidante, Laurie Woolever, several Parts Unknown crew members point to the filming of the show’s 2018 Hong Kong episode as a breaking point for everyone involved.
