Paula Deen is using her new documentary, “Canceled: The Paula Deen Story,” to speak publicly about the scandal that abruptly ended her career.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and gives the former Food Network star a chance to address the controversy directly.
The documentary focuses on the fallout from a deposition in a discrimination lawsuit, during which Deen admitted she had used the N-word.
That moment became a media firestorm, resulting in the loss of her television contracts, endorsements, and partnerships.
“When I say I lost everything, within 24 hours, I lost every job I had. Food Network was first to jump off, then Walmart, Target…It was just everybody,” Deen said.
Deen explained that the full context of the deposition was never reported.
“This is something that ate at my gut every day,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I would have been fine had the whole story been told — had the real story been told. They took this woman (the plaintiff), who is a known liar, they took her word and ran with it, and no one ever investigated any further. I was not going to be happy until the world saw the truth.”
She reflected on the pressure she felt during the deposition.
“They asked me a question,” she recalled. “This group of attorneys from an established well-thought-of firm. They were horrible. They were horrible. The lawyer sitting there with me never opened his mouth. Not one time. So when they asked that question (about the N-word) I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ I’m 65 years old (at the time) and raised in the South, I said, ‘Yes, of course.’”
Deen stressed that the word had long been removed from her vocabulary.
“But that word has been out of our vocabulary now for a long time, and I said you can ask my oldest grandchild, you could say that word to him, and he would ask what it meant and not have a clue. My daddy taught me when I was a teenager, he told me, ‘I don’t ever want to ever hear you being mean or rude to anyone.’ That’s how I was raised.”
The chef admitted that confronting the scandal is difficult but necessary.
After years away from the spotlight, she is determined to show the world her side of the story.
