‘Martha’ director hits back at Martha Stewart’s harsh criticism of documentary about her life
R.J. Cutler wasn’t surprised that Martha Stewart wasn’t the biggest fan of the Netflix documentary he directed about her life, “Martha.”
“It wasn’t surprising to me that she would’ve made a different film that I made, of course,” Cutler said on this week’s episode of “The Town with Matthew Belloni” podcast.
“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.”
During the podcast, Cutler also teased “the text messages” that Stewart allegedly sent him, saying, “I will tell you that Martha expressed herself fully to me in her text messages.”
Despite Stewart’s criticism, Cutler recognized that it took “a tremendous amount of courage on her part to trust” him with her story.
“It’s very, very hard to be a subject in one of these films and to look at it with any sort of objectivity,” he explained.
“And so, 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 later noted, “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.”
In fact, Cutler claimed that Stewart, 83, “understood” that there was a process.
“We engaged in that process. And Martha would have liked me to have a different response to that process, but I didn’t have a different response,” he recalled.
“I have to say, the subjectivity of being Martha Stewart in this situation, the vulnerability that you’re in, has to be responded to with empathy and support. That doesn’t mean it has to be responded to with changes to the film. And that’s what I did. Martha felt the whole thing should be scored differently, the score is extraordinary.”
This is the first time Cutler, 62, has spoken out about Stewart’s criticism of “Martha,” which premiered in October 2024.
Shortly after the documentary aired, Stewart told The New York Times that she “hates” the film’s final moments, which show her tending to her home grounds and gardens.
“R.J. had total access, and he really used very little. It was just shocking,” she told the outlet on Oct. 30. “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.”
She also criticized Cutler’s choice to feature classical music in the movie, explaining that she wanted to feature more rap music. She was also upset about how the film covered her 2004 prison stint.
In the documentary, the TV personality talked about everything from her rise to fame, her marriage to Andrew Stewart and her time in prison after she was found guilty of lying to federal investigators about a stock sale in 2001.
Martha — who was married to Andrew from 1961 and 1990 — even admitted to having an affair in the doc, but suggested that it didn’t count because Andrew didn’t know about it.
Cutler isn’t the only one who felt a type of way about Martha’s criticism, however, as Page Six previously reported that Netflix was left with a bad taste following her comments.
“Martha” is available to stream on Netflix.
