This definitive documentary on Martha Stewart pulls back the curtain on one of America’s greatest self-made icons, from her start as a teenage model to her stint as a Wall Street stockbroker to her reign as the grand dame of entertaining and good taste. Directed by R.J. Cutler (Elton John: Never Too Late, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, The September Issue), Martha draws on hundreds of hours of intimate interviews with Stewart and those from her inner circle, along with Stewart’s private archives of diaries, letters, and never-seen-before footage. The film illuminates Stewart’s upbringing in a working-class family, compels us to reconsider the scandal that sent her to prison, and heralds her post-prison reinvention as the original influencer who’s still captivating new generations of fans.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00What does it mean to be the first female, self-made billionaire in American history?
00:10If there was ever the original influencer, it's Martha.
00:12The hardest thing is to retain cultural relevance as an older woman.
00:17And she's done it.
00:18I was considered crazy, but it worked.
00:21She was preposterously perfect.
00:23Perfect little pattern.
00:24Perfect.
00:26Things look fabulous, but are they?
00:29Young women, listen to my advice.
00:31If you're married and your husband starts to cheat on you, he's a piece of shit.
00:35Get out of that marriage.
00:36Didn't you have an affair early on?
00:38Yeah, but I don't think Andy ever knew about that.
00:41I'm strict and I'm demanding and I'm all those good things that make a successful person.
00:46In the business world, that's a great trait for a man.
00:49But for a woman, you know she was a bitch.
00:52All of that did inspire me tremendously.
00:55I was on the top of the world.
00:57And then the worst thing that could possibly happen happened.
01:00Martha Stewart was indicted on criminal charges.
01:03This is a targeted prosecution.
01:05It's what we're calling a bitch hunt.
01:06I was a trophy for these idiots.
01:09I was dragged into solitary, no food or water.
01:11Those prosecutors should have been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high.
01:16I had to climb out of a hole.
01:19I am free.
01:20No ankle bracelet.
01:24You expected her to do something soft.
01:26But she went the other way.
01:28Smoking on Kush in a hot car.
01:32What is more important, a marriage or a career?
01:35You tell me.
01:37I don't know.
01:40The cookie cutter house and the cookie cutter life was not for me.
01:45I like the way you're spinning that sugar around them balls, Martha. That's nice.
01:50I have two mottos. Learn something new every day.
01:53And when you're through changing, you're through.
01:55I could have just been a miserable husband, housewife.
01:57But I didn't let that happen to myself.
02:00And I'm so happy I didn't.
02:25You