Martha Stewart was not thrilled with her portrayal in the new Netflix documentary Martha — to say the least.
The 83-year-old Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia founder gave The New York Times writer Brooks Barnes quite an earful about director R.J. Cutler in a report published on Wednesday, October 30. “R.J. had total access, and he really used very little. It was just shocking,” Stewart said of giving the director access to her archives.
Perhaps her biggest complaint was that the documentary made her look “like a lonely old lady.” Stewart claimed she asked Cutler to “get rid of” scenes that showed her limping following a “hideous operation” due to a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, but “he refused.”
Martha Stewart attends Netflix’s ‘Martha’ premiere at Paris Theater on October 21, 2024 in New York City. On October 30, the businesswoman shared her grievances about the new documentary.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
“Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden?” Stewart said. “I hate those last scenes. Hate them.” She also took umbrage with the fact that while he included those scenes, he didn’t explain them, or point out “that I can live through that and still work seven days a week.”
The Martha Stewart Living publisher also critiqued the music, noting she had specifically asked him to include a score by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, or Fredwreck — which is not surprising, considering Stewart’s close relationship with Snoop. Stewart said she told the Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry director, “An essential part of the film is that you play rap music.”
While Cutler did add Snoop’s song “Beautiful” at the end of the film — after Stewart saw an unfinished cut of the documentary — the Missionary rapper did not score it. “And then he gets some lousy classical score in there, which has nothing to do with me,” Stewart complained.
The lifestyle expert bemoaned the camera angles Cutler chose, insisting that while he had multiple cameras on her at all times, “he chooses to use the ugliest angle.” She called the second half of the film “a bit lazy,” and lamented the lack of emphasis on what made her magazine special, while also maintaining it was missing her grandchildren, and her colorful personal stories, like about lawyer Alan Dershowitz trying to flirt with her while she was married in the 1960s.
“That was the fun part, all of these stories. R.J. didn’t get any of that in the movie. Can you imagine?” Stewart asked. The Martha Stewart Show host was less than thrilled with the amount of the documentary that focused on her 2004 trial and prison sentence. She called the trial “extremely boring,” and noted that “even the judge fell asleep.”
“It was not that important,” Stewart continued. “The trial and the actual incarceration was less than two years out of an 83-year life. I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth.”
She did, however, enjoy the first half of the documentary, praising it for showing the audience things they did not know about Stewart, like a scene in which she describes a memorable trip to Europe for her honeymoon.
Stewart also admitted that though she had many issues with Martha, she did think it would be good for other women to see a strong woman who stands up for herself after “living through horror.” She explained, “That’s what I wanted the documentary to be… It should be about showing that you can get through life and still be yourself.”
Cutler, for his part, said he is “really proud” of the film, while also noting he wasn’t exactly surprised that Stewart was having a harder time accepting it. “It’s a movie, not a Wikipedia page,” he added.
Martha is streaming on Netflix.
