Paula Deen Set to Participate in New Documentary Centered on Her Scandal

Paula Deen is ready to talk about the scandal that greatly impacted her multimillion-dollar empire.

In a new documentary titled Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, director Billy Corben looks back on the former Food Network star’s rise to fame, to the moment she was fired in 2013 as a result of her admission to using a racial slur in a sworn deposition.

“I think she still doesn’t understand what happened,” Corben shared with People in an interview published Friday, September 5. “I think she’s looking for answers, too.”

Canceled: The Paula Deen Story will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 6.

According to the documentary’s description, the project “explores what it means when we build up celebrities and then tear them down.”

Corben said he traveled to Savannah, Georgia, and met with Paula, 78, and her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen.

After “extensive” interviews with the cookbook author, Corben hopes to share a new perspective on the scandal that made front-page headlines in 2013.

“I think that she tried to tell her story. I think she realized that she wasn’t very good at it,” he told People. “There’s a word she uses to describe herself a lot. It’s only in the doc once or twice, but if you go across her era of stardom, ‘naïve.’ She refers to herself as naïve. I think that’s a very fair and accurate and polite description.”

At one point in her career, Paula was everywhere with various Food Network shows and products available at QVC, Walmart, Target, JCPenney and other major retail stores.

Everything changed in 2013, however, when Paula admitted to using racial slurs during a videotaped deposition. (At the time, she was accused by an ex-employee of racial discrimination. Both parties eventually agreed to drop the case “without any award of costs or fees to any party.”)

While Corben believes Paula’s interviews after the scandal — including a viral appearance on the Today show — didn’t do her any favors, the director said time may be on her side.

“Time and perspective helps a bit, too,” Corben explained. “We spent a lot of time together talking on camera, so she had to get introspective and really start thinking about things in a new way, or a different way at least.”

While Paula’s career looks different than what it was in the early 2000s, she continues cooking and providing recipes for her loyal fans through social media and YouTube.