Martha director R.J. Cutler has addressed Martha Stewart’s damning review of his new documentary, admitting he isn’t surprised by her reaction.
Out now on Netflix, Martha charts the 83-year-old lifestyle mogul’s “unstoppable rise, sudden fall and hard-won comeback” to become the original influencer.
In an interview with the New York Times – published the same day as the film’s release – the businesswoman slammed the movie’s final scenes, its “lousy” soundtrack and the “unflattering” camera angles Cutler chose.
Cutler has since responded to Stewart’s disappointment, saying on Wednesday’s episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast that “it wasn’t surprising to me that she would’ve made a different film that I made.”
“She gave me her feedback, and she was upset that I didn’t make the changes that she wanted to make. But this is the process,” said the filmmaker, who is also known for helming Billie Eilish’s 2021 documentary The World’s a Little Blury.
“It takes a tremendous amount of courage on her part to trust me. I respect that,” Cutler said. “And in return, I share the film with her and have conversations with her about the film. If she has ideas that I think are good ideas and will help the film that I’m making, I’ll take a good idea from anybody. Believe me.”
Stewart had told the NYT some of the suggestions she gave to Cutler, including that “an essential part of the film is that you play rap music.”
Instead, he got “some lousy classical score in there, which has nothing to do with me,” she lamented.
She also took aim at the film’s final scenes, which showed her “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 said.
While she spent much of the interview bashing the documentary, she clarified she doesn’t disapprove of it entirely.
“I love 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,” Stewart praised. “That’s what I wanted the documentary to be. 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 responded to Stewart’s critiques in a statement to the NYT, saying: “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.
“I am really proud of this film,” he added. “I’m not surprised that it’s hard for her to see aspects of it.”
