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TORONTO \u2014 Paula Deen knows you might think of her as a racist.<\/p>\n
The celebrity cook surprised an audience gathered Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival by appearing in person after a screening of \u201cCanceled: The Paula Deen Story,\u201d a new documentary revisiting the 2013 racism scandal that derailed her career. Many people remember Deen admitting to having previously used the n-word, which spiraled into her losing her Food Network show and several brand partnerships. In Toronto, where she wore a sparkly crossbody purse shaped like a giant stick of butter, she said there is more to know about the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not standing here to try to convince y\u2019all that I am not a racist. I am not here for that,\u201d she stated, standing between her two sons. \u201cBut I am here to give this opportunity for y\u2019all to watch and make up your own mind about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her words echoed those of director Billy Corben, who told The Washington Post in a separate interview Sunday that he decided to make the documentary, which doesn\u2019t yet have distribution, so people could form an educated opinion about the so-called cancellation of a onetime television darling. \u201cIf people think the punishment fit the crime, so be it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at least understand what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThis is somehow the most controversial person I\u2019ve ever documented.\u201d His previous subjects include Miami drug smugglers (\u201cCocaine Cowboys\u201d) and mercenaries who stage a failed attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government (last year\u2019s \u201cMen of War\u201d).<\/p>\n
Corben knew broadly of Deen when a producer approached him with the idea to revisit her scandal, but he didn\u2019t know the details of the incident. He started polling friends to see what they could recall and, after conducting some research, discovered that many people were \u201cnot remembering it correctly.\u201d There seemed to be this image of her \u201crunning around the kitchens at her restaurants with a cleaver, dropping n-bombs at her staff,\u201d he said, when that isn\u2019t what was alleged.<\/p>\n
The controversy began in 2013 when Deen and her younger brother, Earl \u201cBubba\u201d Hiers, were sued by a restaurant manager named Lisa Jackson, who is White, over accusations of racism and sexual harassment. Deen was asked in a deposition<\/a> whether she had ever said the n-word, to which she responded, \u201cYes, of course.\u201d She said she probably used it while relaying to her first husband how \u201ca black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.\u201d<\/p>\n Had she used the slur since then? \u201cI\u2019m sure I have,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it\u2019s been a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The discrimination suit was settled within a few months of the deposition, but the damage was done \u2014 not only did she lose her cooking show and lucrative brand partnerships with corporations such as Walmart and Caesars Entertainment, but one of her close friends also came out with her own accusation of Deen treating her poorly based on race. Gordon Elliott, a producer on Deen\u2019s show, says in the film that she lost \u201chundreds of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n Corben told The Post that he wondered whether he, as a White man, was the best director for this film. Might it have been better for a person of color to revisit a racial controversy? He said he was convinced he could capture the nuance after conversations with his wife \u201cgave me a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Bobby Deen, the younger of Deen\u2019s two sons, wondered whether anyone <\/i>should be directing such a film. Before he decided to sign on to the project, Corben went on a tour of Savannah, Georgia, with Deen and her sons. Bobby drove them around for the day and remained relatively quiet, Corben recalled. Then, the filmmaker asked Bobby what he thought of his family participating in the project.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like: \u2018Absolutely not. We should not be doing this. I don\u2019t think this is a good thing,\u2019\u201d Corben said.<\/p>\n Bobby\u2019s outburst caught the filmmaker by surprise, as Deen and her older son, Jamie, had been loquacious and enthusiastic about the prospect of a documentary. It confirmed to him that the film shouldn\u2019t just be about Deen\u2019s controversy but also about how the family was affected: \u201cI\u2019m just like, \u2018Okay, I get it now. It\u2019s the restaurant. It\u2019s Lady and Sons. That\u2019s the story,\u2019\u201d Corben said, referring to the Savannah restaurant that made Deen famous. It shuttered in July.<\/p>\n At the Toronto screening, Bobby described the documentary as accurate and fair.<\/p>\n \u201cWas I right about whether or not it was a good idea? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to go through it all again. I didn\u2019t want my mom to go through it all again. But \u2026 it\u2019s what she wanted. And everything that we\u2019ve done, we\u2019ve done together as family.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCanceled\u201d aims to contextualize the scandal by filling out lesser-known bits of Deen\u2019s personal history. The film notes that she lived through the racial integration of her high school in Albany, Georgia, which began there in her senior year. It includes a clip of her 2012 episode<\/a> of the genealogy series \u201cWho Do You Think You Are?,\u201d which confirmed that she descended from a enslaver family.<\/p>\n Corben includes commentary in the film from Michael Twitty, a Black and Jewish culinary historian whose open letter to Deen<\/a> went viral in 2013. He is the most critical voice of those on camera, saying he wasn\u2019t surprised by what the deposition revealed. Corben also interviews Deen herself, as well as her husband, Michael Groover, and sons Jamie and Bobby. He speaks to Hollis Johnson, Deen\u2019s longtime driver and bodyguard, whom she has said she considers a son. Months before the deposition, Deen invited Johnson onstage at a public discussion of slavery and the Civil War, where she said that he was \u201cas Black as this board<\/a>,\u201d referring to a dark backdrop at the venue.<\/p>\n This incident is not mentioned in the film. Instead, Johnson challenges accusations against Deen, and notes that she and her husband gave him the money to launch a limousine business.<\/p>\n Although Corben said he spoke to restaurant employees about working for Deen, their perspectives do not figure into the film. He does include footage from Deen\u2019s Food Network show of her former friend and colleague Dora Charles, a Black woman who helped open and develop recipes for the Lady and Sons \u2014 and later accused Deen of mistreatment<\/a> while speaking to the New York Times.<\/p>\n Charles declined to be interviewed on camera for \u201cCanceled,\u201d but she allowed Corben to write in a title card that she still stands by what she told the Times about Deen in 2013. He tried to get in touch with Jackson, the White employee who sued Deen and her brother, but he never received a response. \u201cI don\u2019t know if any of the numbers or emails were working,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Early reviews from Toronto accused \u201cCanceled\u201d of providing too many excuses for Deen\u2019s behavior; Corben told The Post that is not the intention of his documentary. The Hollywood Reporter asserted<\/a> that the film \u201cfalls short of a thoughtful critique of cancelation,\u201d while Rolling Stone wrote in a review that \u201cthe questions that are left unasked and the things that are curiously left unsaid \u2026 make you wonder what the doc is trying to accomplish, exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to solve racism and gender discrimination in 104 minutes,\u201d Corben said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to do it. And it\u2019s certainly not Paula Deen who\u2019s going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n