Martha Stewart Slams Her Own Netflix Documentary: ‘It Was Just Shocking’
As the saying goes, “You are your own worst critic,” and you can’t find a bigger critic of Martha Stewart’s new Netflix documentary than Stewart herself.
Despite Martha’s 91 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Stewart delivered her own scathing assessment of the documentary in a new interview with the New York Times, criticizing everything from the music and camera angles to the narrative choices made by director R.J. Cutler.
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“R.J. had total access, and he really used very little,” Stewart told the New York Times during her reported 30-minute tirade about the documentary. “It was just shocking.”
While Stewart had some light praise for Martha — “I love the first half of the documentary,” she said — she had issues with the second half, especially “those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden? Boy, I told [Cutler] to get rid of those. And he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them.”
Stewart and Cutler also argued over camera angles (“He had three cameras on me. And he chooses to use the ugliest angle. And 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”) and music choices (Stewart, a pal of Snoop Dogg, wanted Dr. Dre to score the film; Cutler went with classical music).
“I said to R.J., ‘An essential part of the film is that you play rap music,’” Stewart told the Times. “And then he gets some lousy classical score in there.”
Other gripes include Cutler not incorporating many amusing anecdotes from Stewart’s life, forgetting to even mention her grandchildren, failing to stress the importance of her Martha Stewart magazine, and spending too much runtime on the prison portion of Stewart’s life.
In a statement to the New York Times, Cutler — who has helmed Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Belushi, and Elton John: Never Too Late — defended his work. “I am really proud of this film, and I admire Martha’s courage in entrusting me to make it,” Cutler said. “I’m not surprised that it’s hard for her to see aspects of it.”
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