Martha Stewart Can’t Stand How the ‘Martha’ Netflix Documentary Ends: ‘I Hate It’
Martha Stewart’s not a big fan of Netflix’s Martha documentary. The ending, in particular, is a sore spot for her. Following the documentary’s release on Oct. 30, 2024, Stewart revealed why she “hate[s]” the final scenes. That’s not all. There are plenty of other things she doesn’t like about it, and a select few she does.
She doesn’t like ‘looking like a lonely old lady’ at the end of ‘Martha’
Stewart gave her thoughts on filmmaker R.J. Cutler’s Martha documentary in a phone conversation with The New York Times in what became, per the interviewer, “roughly 30 almost uninterrupted minutes of sharp critique.”
If it were up to Stewart, the shots of her walking through her garden wouldn’t have made the final cut. “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 said.
Stewart went on to admonish the director for not giving viewers context. “I had ruptured my Achilles’ tendon. I had to have this hideous operation. And so I was limping a little,” she said. “But again, he doesn’t even mention why—that I can live through that and still work seven days a week.”
Other parts of the ‘Martha’ documentary Stewart doesn’t like
The ending is far from the only thing Stewart critiqued. She shared that she’s also not a fan of the classical music heard throughout the documentary. Calling it “lousy,” she told the publication she’d wanted rap music. Maybe even some original music by her friend Snoop Dogg as the film’s score. (Stewart requested his song, “Beautiful,” play during the end credits.)
The camera angles didn’t get Stewart’s seal of approval either. “He [Cutler] had three cameras on me. And he chooses to use the ugliest angle,” she said. “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.”
She also didn’t like that there wasn’t enough about the “modernism” of Martha Stewart magazine, no mention of her “fantastic” grandchildren, and “too much time” about her 2004 trial and subsequent prison sentence.
Martha Stewart enjoyed the documentary’s ‘first half,’ overall message
Although Stewart had a long list of dislikes, she didn’t hate the entire documentary from start to finish. There were parts, admittedly only a few, she enjoyed.
“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,” she said. One scene in particular she liked? Remembering kissing a stranger on her honeymoon after becoming overwhelmed with emotion upon seeing a cathedral in Florence, Italy.
As for what Stewart likes “most” about the documentary, it’s the inspiring message. “So many girls have already told me—young women—that watching it gave them a strength that they didn’t know they had,” she 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,” Stewart 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.”
Martha is streaming on Netflix.
