Canceled: The Paula Deen Story is a film that only Billy Corben could make as it traces Deen’s unlikely journey from a small-town caterer to a household name.

“When they lay me down, I do not want on my tombstone: Here lies the body of a racist.” – Paula Deen

With her warmth, grit, and signature butter-filled cooking, she became a Food Network star and an emblem of Southern hospitality, parlaying her charm into books, restaurants, and a culinary empire. For years, she stood as one of the most recognizable figures in American food culture.

That empire crumbled instantly in 2013 after a legal deposition revealed she had used a racial slur years earlier. The fallout was swift and unforgiving—TV contracts vanished, sponsors fled, and Deen was branded one of the earliest casualties of “cancel culture.” Her story became a flashpoint in the ongoing conversation about race, media, accountability, and the politics of redemption.

Canceled: The Paula Deen Story pairs candid interviews with Deen, her family, critics, and colleagues to offer a layered look beyond the tabloid headlines. Blending humor, vulnerability, and competing perspectives, the film revisits her rise and fall while probing what the saga says about American culture today—its divides, its appetite for scandal, and its complicated search for second chances.

If Billy Corben weren’t directing, I probably would’ve skipped Canceled: The Paula Deen Story. His documentaries—especially Screwball—have such a distinct, entertaining style that the rakontur team (Corben, Alfred Spellman, David Cypkin) always delivers. Truthfully, I hadn’t thought about Paula Deen once since the scandal broke. I’ve never been a Food Network viewer. But with Corben at the helm, I had to see how he’d tackle this story.

Eye-opening might not be the right word, but Canceled: The Paula Deen Story sheds real light on how her empire unraveled. Much of it traces back to her brother, Bubba Hiers Jr. Had he not moved to Savannah, there may have been no lawsuit—and no deposition where Deen admitted to using a racial slur. The lawsuit’s discrimination claims were eventually dismissed, but by then, the damage was done.

You can argue context, but the truth is she used the word. It was wrong in 1987, and it’s wrong now. Would an experienced lawyer have objected and kept it from the record? Maybe. Would the news still have leaked? We’ll never know.

For Bobby Deen, reliving it was agony. He admits he didn’t want the documentary made, calling it an “awful, terrible time.” Who could blame him? The family’s rags-to-riches journey—from The Bag Lady to The Lady & Sons—collapsed almost overnight. As he says late in Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, “I may end up watching this documentary.” It’s a telling moment of hesitation.

Corben smartly broadens the lens by including voices like Michael W. Twitty, the Black culinary historian. Twitty never directly answers whether Deen is racist, but he makes one fact clear: Southern cuisine as we know it wouldn’t exist without enslaved people. It’s a sobering reminder at a time when some would rather erase that truth from history books and museums.

Canceled: The Paula Deen Story’s non-linear structure lets Deen revisit formative moments, including her senior year of high school—the first year her school integrated. She recalls pitying the Black students and admits she would’ve been frightened had the roles been reversed. Strikingly, not a single one of those classmates has ever returned for a reunion.

One of the most painful parts of the saga remains the apology video. Deen’s crisis team hustled her to New York and forced out a statement she didn’t believe in. Longtime bodyguard Hollis Johnson swore he’d have quit if she were racist, and insists the video never should have happened. Released before her agent even saw it, the result was flat and insincere. As TCM host Ben Mankiewicz remarked at the time, “It seemed like a hostage video.”

Corben makes sure this isn’t just a reheated scandal—Canceled: The Paula Deen Story is a full-course reminder of how messy America’s culture wars really are. Paula Deen may have lost her empire, but in Corben’s hands, her story becomes less about butter and more about who gets burned.

DIRECTOR: Billy Corben
FEATURING: Paula Deen, Jamie Deen, Bobby Dean, Gordon Elliott, Hollis Johnson, Michael W. Twitty

Canceled: The Paula Deen Story holds its world premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the TIFF Docs program. Grade: 3.5/5

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