Martha Stewart is hitting out at a new Netflix documentary about her life.
Stewart, 83, in particular, said she didn’t like the second half of Martha, which premiered on Netflix on Wednesday, October 30, and “hates” the film’s final moments.
Martha was directed by veteran documentary filmmaker R.J. Cutler, whose previous docs include The September Issue, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry and Elton John: Never Too Late.
“R.J. had total access, and he really used very little,” Stewart, who collaborated with Cutler on the documentary and gave access to archives, told The New York Times in an interview published on Wednesday. “It was just shocking.”
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“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. And he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them,” Stewart continued.
The lifestyle entrepreneur went on, “I had ruptured my Achilles tendon. I had to have this hideous operation. And so I was limping a little. But again, he doesn’t even mention why — that I can live through that and still work seven days a week.”
Stewart also derided Cutler’s music choices (she wanted rap, but the score is mostly classical), camera angles (“He had three cameras on me and he chooses to use the ugliest angle,” she said), and lack of focus on her grandchildren (“There’s not even a mention,” she told the outlet).
Instead, the mogul believes the documentary spent too much time on her five-month sentence in federal prison in 2004. (Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and making false statements to federal investigators in connection with an insider trading case.)
“It was not that important. 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,” Stewart said.
Still, Stewart conceded she enjoyed the first half of the documentary. “It gets into things that many people don’t know anything about, which is what I like about it,” she said.
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Cutler declined to comment to The New York Times on Stewart’s specific misgivings, but told the outlet, “I am really proud of this film and I admire Martha’s courage in entrusting me to make it. I’m not surprised that it’s hard for her to see aspects of it.”
“It’s a movie, not a Wikipedia page. It’s the story of an incredibly interesting human being who is complicated and visionary and brilliant,” he added.
Us Weekly has reached out to Netflix for further comment.
