"I just wanted to work with a man" - Martha Stewart on why she chose RJ Cutler to direct her documentary 'Martha'

During a FYC event at Maybourne Hotel, Martha Stewart sat alongside filmmaker RJ Cutler to discuss the Netflix documentary, Martha, which is based on her life.

When moderator Dave Karger questioned Martha on why she chose Cutler as the director of the documentary, Martha responded, saying that she wanted to "work with a man." Her comment comes after she had expressed her disappointment with Cutler's depiction of her in an October 2024 NY Times article.

After interviewing four filmmakers, Marta agreed to work with RJ Cutler,

"I had interviewed two women who were very accomplished documentarians, and I just wanted to work with a man."

Martha Stewart noted that her media company, Living Omnimedia, was made up of "70% women" and she was looking forward "to not work with yet another women."

Cutler also had a lot to say about Martha, and while complimenting her, noted that,

"She’s not someone who looks backwards. She’s someone who charges forward, who’s confronting the future always. I was always struck with Martha in the early months of getting to know her, that she was on the cutting edge of things that I was just starting to kind of be exposed to."

Martha Stewart and Cutler's positive comments on each other come after Martha in another recent interview with The New York Times, claimed RJ Cutler's depiction of her.

"I hate those last scenes," says Martha Stewart about RJ Cutler's documentary on her

Before sitting down alongside Martha documentary director, RJ Cutler, at an FYC event in Melbourne on May 12, Martha, in an NY Times article published on October 31, 2024, criticised the director's filmmaking decisions on the documentary.

"RJ had total access, and he really used very little. It was just shocking. I said to RJ, 'an essential part of the film is that you play rap music."

She went on to add,

"And then he gets some lousy classical score in there, which has nothing to do with me."

Martha Stewart was also not very happy with the camera angles and said,

"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."

And added that Cutler had plenty of opportunities to show her good side but chose not to,

"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."

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She claimed that the documentary didn't cover the essence of her Martha Stewart magazine, her grandchildren, and her love for travel. She was also not happy with the time spent on covering her "extremely boring" 2004 trial.

The documentary was released on Netflix on October 30, 2024.

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