Why Martha Stewart Is Disappointed in Her New Netflix Documentary: ‘It Was Just Shocking’

The lifestyle media mogul wasn’t satisfied with the way that certain details were portrayed in—or omitted from—the film.

Martha Stewart / Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

When it comes to her new Netflix documentary, Martha Stewart isn’t mincing her words.

The Martha project, led by filmmaker R.J. Cutler, proposed to give a behind-the-scenes look at the lifestyle mogul’s life—her successes, her failures, her comeback. But the final product, which was released on Netflix on Wednesday, doesn’t take as deep of a dive as she would have liked. “R.J. had total access, and he really used very little,” Stewart told the New York Times in a recent interview. “It was just shocking.”

In part, her issue with the documentary has to do with framing. The final few scenes, according to the 83-year-old, portray Stewart “looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden.” But the documentary doesn’t dive into the back story: “I had ruptured my Achilles’ tendon. I had to have this hideous operation. And so I was limping a little,” she explained. “But again, he doesn’t even mention why — that I can live through that and still work seven days a week.”

But that’s only the start of her gripes. Stewart likewise took issue with the choice of music. She had requested rap music (and that comes as no surprise, given her close friendship with Snoop Dogg), but ended up with “some lousy classical score,” as she put it. The final product does feature Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful” in the end credits, though.

Martha Stewart / Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Stewart argued that too much emphasis was placed on some aspects of her story—and too little emphasis was placed on others. For example, her trial and prison sentence received a significant amount of air time. In the grand scheme of things, the less than two-year period wasn’t that monumental for the businesswoman. “I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth,” she remarked.

On the other hand, where her grandchildren are concerned, “There’s not even a mention,” she said. “And these grandchildren are utterly fantastic. My daughter was very against the children being included. But I could have talked about them, and I did. I’ve taken them to the most unusual places in the world, and they’re only 12 and 13.”

But gripes aside, Stewart did enjoy the first part of the documentary. And she is likewise happy with the message that it pedals to younger women. “So many girls have already told me—young women—that watching it gave them a strength that they didn’t know they had,” she explained. “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.”