Martha Stewart Criticizes Netflix Doc for ‘Ugliest Camera Angles,’ a ‘Lousy’ Score and Ending With Her Looking Like a ‘Lonely Old Lady’: ‘I Hate Those Last Scenes’

Martha Stewart has seen her new Netflix documentary, “Martha,” and she’s not entirely a fan of the finished product. Directed by R.J. Cutler, whose recent biographical docs include “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” and “Elton John: Never Too Late,” the Stewart documentary features intimate interviews with her as she opens up her personal archives to share never-before-seen photos, letters, and diary entries from her career.

In an interview with The New York Times, Stewart gave “Martha” a somewhat scalding review and said “R.J. had total access” to her archive but “really used very little. It was just shocking.” She also revealed she tried to get some of the last scenes that Cutler included in the film thrown out.

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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,” Stewart said. “I hate those last scenes. Hate them. 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 called out the “lousy” score Cutler chose to use in the movie, explaining: “I said to R.J., ‘An essential part of the film is that you play rap music.’ Dr. Dre will probably score it, or Snoop or Fredwreck. I said, ‘I want that music.’ And then he gets some lousy classical score in there, which has nothing to do with me.”

She also took issue with the documentary focusing too much on her 2004 trial, where she was convicted on felony charges related to the ImClone stock trading case. “It was not that important. The trial and the actual incarceration was less than two years out of an 83-year life,” she argued. “I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth.”

There was also the documentary’s bad angles. “He had three cameras on me,” Stewart explained to The Times. “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.”

Stewart didn’t give a complete pan, however. She said that she loved the first half of the documentary because “it gets into things that many people don’t know anything about.” Stewart also expressed gratitude for how the film is being received among young women viewers.

“So many girls have already told me that watching it gave them a strength that they didn’t know they had,” Stewart said. “And that’s the thing I like most about the documentary. It really shows a strong woman standing up for herself and living through horror as well as some huge success.”

“That’s what I wanted the documentary to be,” she added. “It shouldn’t be me boasting about inner strength and any of that crap. It should be about showing that you can get through life and still be yourself.”

Cutler sent his own statement over to The Times, saying: “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.”

“Martha” is now available to stream on Netflix. Head over to The New York Times’ website to read more about Stewart’s reaction to the film.