Martha Stewart Slams ‘Martha’ Documentary For Showing Her As ‘Lonely Old Lady’

Martha Stewart says she’s not really feeling a lot of “Martha,” the new Netflix documentary about her life.
In a New York Times interview published Wednesday, the home decor mogul at times gushed over the R.J. Cutler-directed film, saying it “gets into things that many people don’t know anything about,” such as her kissing a stranger while on her honeymoon. But she also deemed its second half “a bit lazy.”
Stewart said that Cutler had “total access” to her archive but “really used very little,” which she called “shocking.”
“Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden? Boy, I told him to get rid of those,” she recalled. “And he refused. I hate those last scenes.”
Explaining that she had ruptured her Achilles tendon, she added, “I had to have this hideous operation. And so I was limping a little. But again, he [Cutler] doesn’t even mention why — that I can live through that and still work seven days a week.”
She also said the director used some unflattering shots of her.
“He had three cameras on me. And he chooses to use the ugliest angle,” Stewart said. “I told him, ‘Don’t use that angle! That’s not the nicest angle. You had three cameras. Use the other angle.’ He would not change that.”
She went on to say that the film spends “way too much time” on her 2004 criminal trial and subsequent imprisonment for lying to the government about a stock sale.
“It was not that important,” Stewart said. “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.”
Another pain point for Stewart was the documentary’s “lousy” music.
“I said to R.J., ‘An essential part of the film is that you play rap music,’” she told the Times, suggesting that a hip-hop artist like Dr. Dre or Snoop Dogg could provide the score.
“I said, ‘I want that music.’ And then he gets some lousy classical score in there, which has nothing to do with me.”
Cutler ended up using Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful” over the end credits, the Times noted.
Despite Stewart’s criticisms, she promoted the film online Wednesday, telling her millions of social media followers, “Be sure to watch.”
Many fans on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, praised the documentary.
Watching it now. Wonderful, inspiring. Absolutely love!!
Just watched this and was so moved by your story. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Excellent documentary.
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Check out Stewart’s full interview at The New York Times.