Martha Stewart wants do-over of 'lazy' documentary, admits she disliked filming with 'intense' director
Martha Stewart has made several public complaints about her Netflix documentary, 'Martha,' and wanting a second chance to tell her story fully.
Martha Stewart wants a documentary do-over.
She made her feelings known during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" Wednesday night.
When asked whether she was "happy" with the documentary, Stewart said, "Yeah, the documentary is fine."
She continued, "It left out a lot, so I’m going to talk to them about maybe doing version two."
"There’s a lot more to my life. I’ve lived a long time, and I just thought maybe we’ve left out some stuff, so. Good stuff," the 83-year-old added.
Fallon also asked whether she had enjoyed the documentary process with director R.J. Cutler, and Stewart again expressed some dissatisfaction.
"No, I didn’t like it," she said. "I don’t like going to psychiatrists and talking about your feelings and all that stuff. And the director was so intense on delving."
The lifestyle guru did say of Cutler’s work that "good stuff came out. He got some juice."
Stewart mentioned that she is working on an autobiography, which she teased would be "even more revealing."
She added, "Watch out, you don’t know what I’ll say about you," teasing Fallon.
Representatives for Stewart, Cutler and Netflix did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Since the documentary’s debut on Netflix on October 30, Stewart has made several comments about not being satisfied with the final product.
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In an interview with The New York Times, Stewart offered several scathing remarks about Cutler.
"R.J. had total access, and he really used very little," she said, referring to her archive. "It was just shocking."
She also called the film’s second half "a bit lazy," adding, "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."
Stewart told the outlet that she had recently had surgery to repair her ruptured Achilles’ tendon, leading her to limp onscreen. "But again, he doesn’t even mention why — that I can live through that and still work seven days a week."
The author and mogul continued, detailing her dislike for music and camera angles, and the documentary leaving out her grandkids, as well as spending "way too much time" on her 2004 trial and prison sentence.
It wasn’t all negative though, as Stewart admitted that she liked the first half, which focused on her early life, and that the documentary offers a potentially inspiring message to viewers.
"So many girls have already told me — young women — that watching it gave them a strength that they didn’t know they had," she told the outlet. "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."
Cutler told The New York Times, "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."
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The Oscar-nominated director added, "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."
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal about two weeks after the premiere, Stewart reiterated, "Way, way too much did not make it in," and "We’re having a controversy."
She did discuss some of her plans for her autobiography, saying, "I don’t want the book to be as long as Barbra Streisand’s, because I think hers is a little too long," but "there is a lot to say in the autobiography that was not in the documentary."
According to Stewart in a separate New York Times interview, she had a "collaboration clause" acknowledging that while Cutler has the final say, he is "obligated to meaningfully consult with you with respect to the development, production, distribution and exploitation of the picture, and to keep you meaningfully and promptly informed of any and all material updates."
Cutler told the outlet that he had showed Stewart work-in-progress versions of the film "three or four times" and "engaged in thoughtful conversations with her and her team about it," and noted there is no "collaboration clause."
"What she had in her contract, it’s the same thing as in all of our contracts," Cutler said. "I’ll show you the film. You’ll tell me what you think. I’ll tell you how I’m responding. You’ll tell me again what you think. I’ll tell you again how I’m responding. And that will be that. The final editing decisions are mine."
Cutler responded to some of Stewart’s comments further on "The Town with Matthew Belloni" podcast this week.
"Guess what? Martha saw the film, and she told me what she thought about it," he said. "It wasn’t surprising to me that she would have made a different film than I made. Of course. 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."
He added that he had seen her interview on "The Drew Barrymore Show," where she praised the "virtues" of the documentary, and added that it’s "very, very hard to be a subject of one of these films and look at it with any objectivity."
"This is a process I understand, and you have to be empathetic to the subject, but that doesn’t mean she’s in control of the movie."
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