What does Martha Stewart recommend everyone watch on Netflix this weekend? It won’t be her own documentary! Well, watch the first half, at least! She most likely will tell you to ignore the rest!
The streaming platform just released Martha on Wednesday, which features interviews with the television personality as she shares never-before-seen pictures, letters, diary entries, and more from her life and career. Watch the trailer (below):
It looks super interesting, right? We’ve seen so many clips, we were getting excited!
But what does Martha think about her own documentary? She watched the final product and now has a whole list of feedback to give director R.J. Cutler — and it’s not all positive!
Related: Martha Stewart Says Ina Garten Was ‘Extremely Unfriendly’ When She Went To Prison!
In an interview with The New York Times published on Wednesday, the Martha Stewart Living star spent “roughly 30 almost uninterrupted minutes” BASHING the documentary! Whoa, what?! She told the outlet it’s “shocking” how “very little” of her archive R.J. used despite having “total access.” And that’s only the start of her scathing review! She was brutal, Perezcious readers!
While Martha enjoyed the first half of the documentary, the second part? She thought it was “a bit lazy.” Ouch! In fact, she revealed she tried to get R.J. to cut some of the last scenes because she hated how he made her look like “a lonely old lady!” However, he refused — and Martha is pissed! She explained:
“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. 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.”
Anyone who has ever seen the queen of thirst traps’ iconic pics on Instagram 100 percent knows she’s far from “a lonely old lady”! No wonder she’s insulted! But this leads us to her other issue with her appearance in the project… The unflattering camera angles R.J. used. Martha complained:
“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.”
Yeesh…
The next problem she had? The music. Martha slammed R.J. for using a “lousy” score in the movie when she wanted hip hop — especially from her good friend Snoop Dogg!
“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.”
In Cutler’s defense, The New York Times noted he did include Snoop’s track Beautiful to the end credits — but only after Martha saw an unfinished version of the film. At least that’s better than nothing? But yeah, it’s really starting to feel like the director had a vision of Martha the movie that didn’t have much to do with Martha the person.
As for the content in the doc? Martha had a lot to say about that, as well! She told the outlet she wished R.J. included certain things she’d shared, like an anecdote about how lawyer Alan Dershowitz was practically “dribbling on the table” while flirting with her in the 1960s when she was married. We mean… sounds pretty juicy.
Martha also questioned why her grandchildren didn’t make the cut. They didn’t even get a “mention!” Huh?? We guess they didn’t fit the “lonely old woman” narrative?
In her eyes, R.J. also failed to capture what made her magazine so special:
“My magazine, my Martha Stewart magazine, which you might say is traditional, was the most modern home magazine ever created. We had avant-garde photography. Nobody ever showed puff pastry the way I showed it. Or the glossaries of the apples and the chrysanthemums. And we prided ourselves so much on all of that modernism. And he didn’t get any of that.”
But it wasn’t just what was left out! A lot of what did end up in the film also upset Martha! She thought there was too much focus on her 2004 trial, where she was convicted on felony insider trading charges. She complained:
“It was not that important. The trial and the actual incarceration was less than two years out of an 83-year life. I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth. The trial itself was extremely boring. Even the judge fell asleep. R.J. didn’t even put that in. The judge was asleep at the bench. I wrote it in my diary every day.”
Well, those 2 years were a big part of her life — and one of the first things we’re sure viewers would be curious about. Just sayin’!
Despite Martha’s laundry list of complaints, R.J. said in his own statement to The New York Times that he is “really proud of this film” — though he also was “not surprised” by her reaction:
“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. 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.”
Reactions? Do you still plan to watch the documentary after Martha’s review? Let us know in the comments!
[Image via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/Netflix/YouTube]
Related Posts
-
Categories
