Todd Sampson’s immersive approach to documentary making has seen him chained underwater (Redesign My Brain), submit to a voodoo initiation (Body Hack) and undergo eye surgery (Mirror Mirror: Body Dysmorphia). So it is not unexpected that a leech facial is among the weird and wacky therapies he explores in his third season of Mirror Mirror.
“At many stages of my life, I’ve been a wellness addict,” Sampson explains from his hometown of Sydney (the Canadian version), where he is visiting his father. “I’ve done a lot of these treatments before. I’ve been swimming around in the wellness waters.”
Todd Sampson undergoes a leech facial for his new series Mirror Mirror: Are You Well?
Are You Well? is a two-part series probing the global multimillion-dollar wellness industry. This time, however, the advertising creative and Qantas board member was not in entirely unfamiliar territory.
After having tried therapies such as cupping, silent meditation retreats, acupuncture and detoxing, Sampson grew sceptical about the benefits. Watching the rise of wellness influencers, specifically Gwyneth Paltrow and Miranda Kerr, who have come under fire for promoting potentially dangerous remedies, he became concerned that more people are turning to unqualified health advisers rather than doctors.
“What I find frustrating is the lack of trust in science, the anti-medical approach that people are taking,” says Sampson. “Gwyneth Paltrow has created a $US250 million business that sells pseudoscience. She caters to a wealthy, upper-middle class audience.”
In the series, Sampson travels to the US to confront Paltrow at Goop HQ. Denied entry, he instead visits her “favourite detox centre” in the Californian desert. In response to a “straight no” from Miranda Kerr, Sampson books a session with the model’s leech therapist in Florida, where he has a “leech facial” using his own sucked blood.
’There’s the other side of me that thinks, ‘Does [Gwyneth Paltrow] know that vaginal steaming is very, very dangerous?’
Todd Sampson
“I didn’t put this in the film, but Miranda Kerr phoned [the therapist] while I was on the table,” recalls Sampson. “It was surreal.”
Sampson was disappointed neither woman would speak to him about their controversial business enterprises. “There’s one side of me that wants to believe that Gwyneth has set out to make the world a better place,” he says. “Then there’s the other side of me that thinks, ‘Does she know that vaginal steaming is very, very dangerous?’”
