Martha Stewart wants a ‘version two’ of the ‘lazy’ Netflix documentary about her
Martha Stewart thinks a second version of the buzzed-about Netflix documentary on her life needs to be made.
The plainspoken lifestyle mogul, who has not held back on her criticism of R.J. Cutler’s film, conceded Thursday that the documentary was “fine” overall. But she has still has some issues with it.
“It left out a lot. So I’m going to go talk to them about maybe doing version two,” the 83-year-old told “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon. “There’s a lot more to my life. I mean, I’ve lived a long time and I just thought maybe we’ve left out some stuff ... good stuff.”
The Martha Stewart Living founder, who appears peeved occasionally throughout the documentary, told Fallon she didn’t enjoy the process of making the film.
“No, I didn’t like it,” she said. “I don’t like going to psychiatrists and talking about your feelings and all of that stuff. And the director was so intense on delving. But that came out, good stuff came out. He got some juice.”
The lifestyle author — who is doing the media rounds for her 100th book, “Martha: The Cookbook,” not for the documentary — also teased her forthcoming autobiography, which she claims is “even more revealing” than the Netflix film.
R.J. Cutler, the director of Netflix’s ‘Martha,’ discussed his film about the lifestyle guru and businesswoman and how he isn’t bothered by her criticism of it.
“Martha” delves into Stewart’s challenging upbringing and her contentious marriage to publisher Andy Stewart, including cheating allegations. It also highlights her brief time in prison and her successful pivot to rebrand herself as a savvy elder influencer who pals around with hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg. The film, which features intimate photos, diary entries and letters from her personal archive, notably includes a probing interview with Stewart in which she appears both cagey and brutally honest.
Cutler, a three-time Emmy winner and Oscar nominee, recently told The Times that Stewart’s interview reveals “so much about Martha factually, but you also learn so much about her as a character. You see how challenging it was for her to confront so much of her own story.”
Notably, “The World According to Dick Cheney” and “The September Issue” filmmaker said the interview is “a window into [Stewart] as an unreliable narrator.”
“Of course, Martha would have made a different film than I made,” he said. “On some level. I’m grateful that she pointed out that this is my film, and I have final cut.”
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Stewart has publicly bashed the film, recently giving it a scathing review in the the New York Times. She told the outlet that she gave Cutler “total access” to her archive but that he “really used very little.” She also said she liked the first half of the documentary but felt that the second half was “a bit lazy.”
“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,” the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model said.
The “Pixels” and “Bad Moms” actor said Cutler chose “lousy” classical music instead of her preferred hip-hop to score the film, used unflattering camera angles, failed to capture the essence of her magazine and omitted her grandchildren. In another piece published a day after her review, she alleged that she had a “collaboration clause,” which gave Cutler final say on the film but also made him “obligated to meaningfully consult” with her on its development, production, distribution and exploitation. The director was also meant to “meaningfully and promptly” inform her of “any and all material updates,” she said.
Cutler, who has denied having a collaboration clause (which can also be referred to as a consulting clause), has continued to staunchly defend his work weeks after the documentary began streaming. He has said that he’s really proud of the film and admires Stewart’s courage in entrusting him to make it.
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“I’m not surprised that it’s hard for her to see aspects of it,” he told the New York Times.
The filmmaker said that he allowed Stewart to see work-in-progress versions of the documentary “three or four times” and “engaged in thoughtful conversations with her and her team about it.” But, he asserted, even with the back-and-forth, the final editing decisions were his alone.
Speaking on “The Town With Matthew Belloni” podcast this week, Cutler said he knew Stewart was upset that he didn’t make the changes that she wanted, defending his work as “the process” and jokingly saying that he “fantasize[s]” about one day publishing the text message he got from her. At one point he claimed Stewart called him to ask for a favor and he agreed with the caveat that she “need[s] to be nice to me.” He claimed that she instead said she would “ask someone else” and hung up on him.
“Guess what, Martha saw the film and she told me what she thought about it. ... She gave me her feedback and she was upset that I didn’t make the changes that she wanted to make, but this is process. It takes a tremendous amount of courage on her part to trust me. I respect that,” Cutler said.
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“It’s very, very hard to be a subject of one of these films and to look at it with any sort of objectivity. This is a process I understand and you have to be empathetic to the subject, but that doesn’t mean that she’s in control of the movie,” he added.
Earlier this week, Stewart raved about the virtues of the film on “The Drew Barrymore Show” and said that her grandchildren liked the documentary. Stewart, who bristled when the touchy-feely host asked her what makes her feel “soft and gooey,” said she thought the film was “a good representation of a 20th and 21st century woman, giving hope and caring to the female gender in America, really.”
Times staff writer Meredith Blake contributed to this report.
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