The director of Martha Stewart’s new Netflix documentary has revealed her cheeky phone call to him as he pushes back against her criticism of the film.
Stewart, 83, took part in the Netflix film and gave extensive on-camera interviews for it, but has publicly reacted with scathing to the final product.
She complained that the film was “lazy” and “left out a lot,” to the point where she hopes to approach the streaming service about putting together a “Version Two.”
Now the documentary’s director, RJ Cutler, has broken his silence on her comments and given his side of the story on the podcast The City with Matthew Belloni.
He shared that “I fantasize about publishing the text messages she sent me one day,” adding that “Martha completely expressed herself to me in her text messages” regarding her doubts about the film .
Cutler then shared a hilarious conversation in which Stewart called him to ask for a favor and he responded, “Sure, Martha, I’d love to do it, but you have to be nice to me!” to which she replied, “Oh, never mind, I’ll ask someone else,” and hung up.
The director of Martha Stewart’s new Netflix documentary has revealed her cheeky phone call to him as he pushes back against her criticism of the film, which portrays her
The filmmaker, who previously directed documentaries on Anna Wintour, Billie Eilish, John Belushi and Elton John, was candid about his creative differences with the subject of his latest feature, simply titled Martha.
“Martha saw the film and she told me what she thought of it, and of course it was no surprise to me that she would have made a different film than me,” he said.
“And she gave me her feedback, and she was upset that I didn’t make the changes she wanted, but this is a process,” Cutler argued.
‘It takes a lot of courage on her part to trust me. I respect that, 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 benefit the film I’m making, I’ll take a good idea from anyone, believe me.”
He was less open to the idea of the entire film being scored with rap – a concept suggested by Stewart, who is famous for being friends with Snoop Dogg.
“It’s very, very difficult to be the subject of one of these films and look at it with any objectivity, and so this is a process that I understand, and you have to have empathy for the subject,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean she’s in control of the film.”
Cutler’s comments come after Stewart publicly expressed her blistering feelings about the film in an interview The New York Times.
‘Those last scenes where I look like a lonely old lady hunched over in the garden? Boy, I told him to put that away. And he refused,” she insisted.
Now the documentary’s director, RJ Cutler, has broken his silence on her comments and given his side of the story; he is pictured in New York on Tuesday
Despite all the criticism, however, the mogul seems eager to make another film, as she teased in an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“But then again, him [R.J.] “I don’t even mention why – that I can survive that and still work seven days a week,” she joked.
Martha was especially annoyed because RJ used the “ugliest” camera angle, despite her insisting that he change it.
“He had three cameras pointed at me,” she said. ‘And he chooses to use the ugliest angle. And I said to him, ‘Don’t use that corner! That’s not the prettiest angle. You had three cameras. Use the other corner.’ He wouldn’t change that.’
As if that wasn’t enough, Martha also expressed her anger about the music in the documentary, confessing that she would have preferred if rap music had been used instead of the classical score that RJ opted for.
She was also frustrated that several scenes had been removed, including details about her Martha Stewart magazine, her grandchildren, her love of travel and how her lawyer Alan Dershowitz flirted with her in the 1960s despite her being married.
However, she added, “I love the first half of the documentary. It’s about things that a lot of people don’t know about, and I like that about it.’
Still, despite all the criticism, the mogul seems eager to make another movie, as she teased in an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
When Fallon asked her if she was “happy with the documentary,” she admitted that she approached Netflix about making another one… simply because so much was left out.
In her new Netflix documentary, the 83-year-old revealed some secrets of her marriage to Andrew ‘Andy’ Stewart, which ended in divorce in 1990; pictured at the wedding in 1961
‘Yes, the documentary is fine. There’s a lot left out, so I’m going to talk to them about maybe version 2,” Stewart told Fallon.
‘There’s a lot more to my life. I’ve lived a long time, and I thought maybe we left some things out, so. Good stuff,” she said.
Fallon also asked if she liked “the process,” mentioning scenes where she tells the director to skip certain things, and Stewart didn’t like it.
‘No, I didn’t like it. I don’t like going to psychiatrists and talking about your feelings and all that stuff. And the director was so intensely digging,” she said.
- Fallon insisted: ‘Yes, but that’s what we want to see,” as she added, “I know, but that’s what came out. So good things came out of it. He got some juice.”