Director RJ Cutler says “trust” is one of his secrets to getting Martha Stewart, Elton John, Billie Eilish, Anna Wintour and other famous people to open up in his documentaries. But he has found that people really “want to tell their stories.”

Martha – his film about the rise, fall and reinvention of the lifestyle queen – is now streaming on Netflix. Stewart warned Cutler that it wouldn't be easy for her to open up, but there she is on screen recounting affairs she had during her marriage, seemingly without an ounce of remorse.

Elton John: Never too late Co-directed by Cutler with John's husband David Furnish, coming to Disney+ on December 13th, the film looks back at the British singer's storied music career as he retires from touring in 2023. All the layers are peeled back on the larger-than-life, dazzling, bespectacled personality and it's so human to watch him backstage, in his bathrobe and socks, getting his makeup done for one of the last times on tour. This is even more true when the septuagenarian talks about his mortality or shares his young sons' fears about his death.

“I like telling great stories and that's what I have in common with Martha and Elton and Anna and Billie,” said Cutler, who also directed The September issue (2009) and Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry (2021), said Yahoo Entertainment. “I don’t see them as cautious. I think they have really fascinating stories to tell.”

Cutler said the “desire to have your story told is the most natural thing in the world” – and “that's no less true for the people I've made films about.”

It starts with connecting to its themes.

“You obviously have to earn their trust,” he said. “You have to listen”, “be empathetic” and also “imaginative”.

And remember, it's their story. It is merely a “loan” for him.

John speaks on camera about mortality, “that's what this journey is about”

Sometimes the film's magic comes in candid conversations – like when John speaks bluntly about his mortality, which is staring him right in the face.

“Elton talking about his mortality is…the film that reaches out to you and says, 'This is what this journey is about,'” Cutler said.

He continued: “This is the journey of an extraordinary man. Late in life. He has small children. He has found happiness. He found happiness in large part because of that incredible risk he took to come out in 1976, when he was a young man. “Now he is faced with this momentous decision: How does he want to spend the remaining years of his life? And Elton has chosen to focus on his family – not on his career, not on fame, not on the ultimate addiction of his life, which is performance.”

For the record, John's retirement from touring has stuck.

“I saw him last night … and I said, 'Do you miss it at all?'” Cutler said. “He said, ‘Zero. Zero.'”

Stewart's archives had answers when she didn't have answers

Cutler is always looking for alternatives when making films, so his film isn't just about interviews with talking heads.

In MarthaBecause she is telling her story for the first time, she is the only on-camera interview in the documentary. Others who make comments — from her daughter Alexis to her publicist — are audio only. In this way, Stewart's voice and his story stand out.

But Stewart isn't someone who wants to spend a lot of time thinking about the past. Even at 83, she is looking ahead to what comes next. So in some cases, having access to the lifestyle guru's personal archive (photos, letters, footage) was better than having Stewart share her memories, Cutler said.

“I would rather have her letters to her husband from the last years of her marriage than her talking about it,” Cutler said. “It is truly revealed in these letters. I would rather have their prison diaries written straight away, like we do. I'd rather have… the footage that no one saw (recorded) in the weeks between her conviction and sentencing, showing how incredibly vulnerable she is as she prepares for prison. She tells us: You go to the dentist. You go to the gynecologist. They prepare your body for what might come. This is powerful stuff.”

Central to John's documentary was gaining access to audio conversations the singer had with ghostwriter Alexis Petridis for his 2019 memoir. Me. In Eilish's film, Cutler encouraged the singer's mother, Maggie Baird, to make videos on her iPhone.

“Maggie is a brilliant cinematographer, it turns out,” Cutler said. “She is as brilliant a cinematographer as her children are musicians, and this footage was incredibly valuable to us. So you have to be resourceful, but that’s how we do what we do.”

In a few words, Wintour gave “a glimpse of the person she was.”

Cutler's listening skills opened the door to unforgettable parts The September issue about the ultra-private Wintour's relationship with her family.

The filmmaker said he had early discussions with all of his protagonists about getting the final cut, which he said was crucial to the film being “taken seriously.” He remembered the conversation with the Vogue editor the day they met.

“Anna said, ‘My father was a journalist. I am a journalist. “That won’t be a problem,” Cutler said. “I figured: Great. I always want to get this out of the way as early as possible. … (Then) when I thought about the conversation later that evening, I thought, “Why did Anna Wintour mention her father to me?” … Was it to impress me? Did she give any insight into the person she was?' I thought: I’ll remember that.”

On the last day of filming, Cutler brought it up. This led to Wintour revealing how her successful siblings, whose careers are more brilliant than the others, are “very amused by what I do,” as if their job isn't on par with their professions.

“That connection revealed so much,” Cutler said. “Here was this incredibly talented woman who had been running the multi-billion dollar international fashion industry for decades and was struggling with whether her family took her seriously. …So that’s part of it. You have to be a good listener.

“The story is part of the topic”

Cutler, who is currently filming a documentary about the World Series, says it's “all about gaining the trust of his subjects.” One way to do this “is to be who you say you are.”

“If you say, ‘We have a tiny footprint. It’s just me and a camera and sound, don’t come with 30 people,” he said. “And if you have a crew, make sure everyone knows and that they're comfortable and that you know their sensitivity areas. …It's like in any relationship. You want to be a good partner.”

Cutler was introduced to the workings of the genre early in his career in the 1993s, when he worked for documentary film legends Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker The War roomabout Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.

“I learned from them that history is part of the theme,” he said. “The subject trusts you to tell the story. They lend you the story.”

He continued: “They want to hear them. We always say: It's better to stop taking photos for ten minutes before someone says, 'I'm tired.' Can we stop for today?' And especially when we shoot for longer periods of time, we definitely take several weeks off. You’d rather they miss you than wish you would go away.”

Martha is now streaming on Netflix. Elton John: Never too late Premieres December 13th on Disney+.