Paula Deen criticizes the late chef and television host Anthony Bourdain in a new documentary that revisits the pair's long-running feud and her more recent controversies.
In "Canceled: The Paula Deen Story," which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Deen says Bourdain had once called her "the most dangerous woman in America" and adds in present-day interview footage, "I felt like he didn't like anybody. Not even himself, maybe." Bourdain, who died by suicide in 2018 at age 61, appears in archival clips shown in the film, including a 2011 remark reported then as calling Deen "the worst, most dangerous person in America."
The documentary intercuts new interview material with older television appearances and news footage that trace the origins and escalation of the feud. In one archival clip, Bourdain is shown saying, "This is not Southern food she's been selling. Her brand has been all these years, novelty food." Deen is shown in a past appearance on "The Joy Behar Show" making a coarse quip about her cooking: "Let me tell you something, girlfriend. Maybe [my food] is bad for you, but I don't go around eating or serving unwashed anuses of wildebeests."
In a present-day segment of the film, Deen again takes aim at Bourdain's culinary tastes, saying, "I don't know what he was off in these foreign countries eating. Bat brains or something like that. I think I'll just stick with my fried chicken." She also says, "God rest his soul." The documentary plays additional archival footage in which Bourdain responds to one of Deen's critical comments by speculating, "He's probably still shooting dope, is probably what she's saying in a nice kind of Southern way."
Deen tells the documentary crew that she never met Bourdain before his public criticism, saying, "He started something with me, and I'd never even met him," while archival clips show her publicly inviting Bourdain to her home for a meal. In older footage, Bourdain appears to dismiss the idea, saying it would take "nuclear war" for him to agree to eat her cooking.
The film also addresses the 2013 racism scandal that effectively derailed Deen's mainstream television career. At the time, she was being sued by a former employee and a court transcript of her deposition revealed she had used the N-word. In the documentary, her attorney, Bill Glass, tells viewers that people "should not take any issue" with her use of the word in context. Deen is shown acknowledging the past, saying, "Yes, of course I've used that word."
Bourdain, a chef-turned-travel-documentarian, had publicly criticized a number of culinary figures during his career; his blunt commentary and exploration of food culture were central to his work. His death in 2018 prompted widespread discussion of mental health in the culinary and media communities. The new documentary frames Deen's recollections and archived footage as part of a larger recounting of the controversies that have shaped her public life.
The film's premiere at the Toronto festival brought renewed attention to both the decades-old conflict with Bourdain and the incidents that led to Deen being a focal point of public debate over race and celebrity. "Canceled: The Paula Deen Story" combines archival news footage, television clips and contemporary interviews in an effort to retell those episodes from Deen's perspective.
