Paula Deen’s career took a major hit back in 2013 after she admitted in a legal deposition that she had used the N-word in the past.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the scandal cost her Food Network contracts, lucrative endorsements, and much of her spotlight. Now, a new documentary is revisiting the controversy, with both Deen and her lawyer standing by her testimony.
Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, which premiered Saturday, September 6, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, features interviews with Deen and her lawyer, Bill Glass.
In the documentary, Glass insists her admission shouldn’t have been viewed as damaging. “If anybody brings any sense to her comments and heard her answer and understood the context, they should not take any issue with it,” he argues.
That “context,” according to Deen, goes back to a 1987 armed robbery. She recalls being at work in a bank when a masked gunman pointed a weapon at her.
“All he said was, ‘Get the big bills.’ So I did that and gave it to him. And he left,” she remembers, explaining that she later used the racial slur while describing the terrifying incident to her husband — not in public.
Glass further contends that the deposition questions were unfair. “It wasn’t, ‘Do you use it at the restaurant?’ It wasn’t, ‘Have you used it recently?’ It was, ‘Have you ever used the N-word?’” he says. “There’s two reasons to object to that line of questioning. One was it was directed at leverage, not truthfulness. The second reason is it had nothing to do with the claims in the case.”
The lawsuit in question was filed by Lisa Jackson, a white manager at one of Deen’s Georgia restaurants, who accused Deen and her brother, Earl Hiers, of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.
Although a federal judge tossed out the racial bias claim in 2013, Deen’s deposition had already gone public. On page 23 of the transcript, published by CNN, she plainly confirmed, “Of course,” she had used the N-word.
In Canceled, Deen continues to insist she isn’t racist, with family and associates speaking in her defense. Back when the case first made headlines, her spokesperson also told The New York Times that Deen stood for “equal opportunity, kindness and fairness for everyone.”
