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Paula Goes To Hollywood | Elizabethtown Movie - Join Paula as she celebrates her time working on Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, and Susan Sarandon! Paula Deen Special Episode.
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#pauladeen #positivelypaula
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:09
- [Paula] You know, people tell me all the time,
0:10
"Gosh Paula, you must feel like you're living a dream."
0:13
Well, it's true.
0:14
I mean, who could ever imagine
0:16
going from selling small lunches cooked in my kitchen
0:20
to walking down the red carpet of a Hollywood premiere?
0:23
I mean, we are talking Elizabethtown, y'all. That's right.
0:27
Paula Deen in a big Hollywood movie with Orlando Bloom,
0:31
Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon.
0:33
And listen, it's being produced by Tom Cruise
0:36
and written and directed by my favorite, Cameron Crow.
0:40
You know, this whole thing is just so exciting,
0:43
I just gotta share it with y'all.
0:45
So come on, let me take you behind the scenes
0:48
as "Paula Goes to Hollywood."
0:50
(swelling music)
0:57
They say, "The road to Hollywood is a well-worn path
1:01
that's unique from person to person."
1:03
But my story of arriving to work in a major Hollywood film
1:08
may be the most unusual one of all.
1:11
Cameron Crow, the writer, director, and producer
1:15
of so many fabulous films like "Jerry McGuire"
1:18
and "Almost Famous," has written and directed a movie
1:21
called "Elizabethtown," and can you believe, cast me in it.
1:26
- The idea of "Paula in Hollywood" is so funny to me
1:28
because she's so not Hollywood,
1:31
nor will Hollywood corrupt her.
1:35
Paula's just real as real can be,
1:38
and that's why it's funny to me
1:40
even the idea of "Paula's Hollywood"
1:43
or "Paula in Hollywood" just cracks me up
1:46
- [Paula] Being an overnight success, y'all,
1:48
is not easy you know.
1:49
15 years of hard work, cooking and serving up meals
1:53
from my old family recipes put me on the road to movies.
1:57
Who would ever have imagined?
2:00
First it was the food, then the restaurant, and cookbooks,
2:04
my own TV show, and lo and behold,
2:07
a call from one of the most respected directors in Hollywood
2:11
to please come and be in his movie.
2:13
- She gets a phone call here at the Lady & Sons.
2:16
"This is Cameron Crow, and I need to speak to Paula Deen."
2:19
My mom says, "Well, I don't know who Cameron Crow is.
2:21
You should talk to the guy."
2:23
"So Cameron, I'm a movie director
2:25
and Hollywood, I've seen your show.
2:28
I think you're really great
2:30
and there's a role in this movie that we would like for you,
2:32
will you please come be in this movie?"
2:34
- Paula was a lifesaver for us
2:36
because we had this really important part, Aunt Dora,
2:39
who's the commanding force of this extended family,
2:44
that is at the center of "Elizabethtown."
2:48
And this woman is bringing everybody to her home
2:51
to celebrate the unfortunate death of Mitch Baylor,
2:55
who's Orlando Bloom's father in the movie.
2:57
And we had such a hard time finding the actress
3:02
to play this part because I think you have a lot of people
3:05
that aren't really connected to the art of communicating
3:10
and cooking and bringing people together.
3:12
So they'll act it, but there's something about seeing
3:15
someone who's not a cook act like a cook.
3:18
You just, something's a little amiss.
3:20
And Gail Levin is the casting director.
3:22
So she called me one night and said, "I found Aunt Dora."
3:28
I said, "How'd you find Aunt Dora? You're home sick."
3:31
She goes, "I've been watching TV
3:34
and I found the most amazing woman,
3:36
and her name is Paula Deen."
3:39
So I get this video of Paula Deen's show with Jimmy Carter.
3:43
I put it in the player, and you know, she's magic.
3:46
Immediately, you're drawn in by this woman.
3:49
You feel like she's a part of your family.
3:52
And you just catch the buzz when you see Paula.
3:56
So I called Gail back, I said, "You're right,
3:58
this is Aunt Dora."
4:01
I called Paula, I gave her the part in about two minutes,
4:03
didn't even audition her.
4:05
I'd never done that before.
4:08
It was just such a strong instinct that we had, that I had
4:13
that she would be a natural.
4:15
- And I agreed to come out.
4:17
I said, "I will come out and do my best for you."
4:22
I said, "But if I'm no good, just send me back home."
4:25
I said, "I can always fry chicken." (laughs)
4:29
So not only was I going to be working
4:31
with a famous director,
4:32
and the producer of the movie was Tom Cruise.
4:35
I mean, come on girls, Tom Cruise.
4:38
And then I heard who was gonna be in the cast
4:41
for Elizabethtown.
4:41
You know, I really realized
4:43
that I had my work cut out for me.
4:45
I mean, my goodness, Susan Sarandon, Orlando Bloom,
4:48
Kirsten Dunst, cute little Judy Greer.
4:51
I had been admiring all these people for a long time,
4:54
and now we were gonna be working side by side.
4:58
You know, I still can't believe it.
5:00
When I see the movie, I'll be more surprised
5:02
than anybody in the audience. (laughs)
5:05
- Also criticized somebody's cooking on my last visit
5:09
in '82, it wasn't anything personal.
5:14
I just really don't like ham.
5:16
- Well, Holly, I accept your apology
5:19
'cause I know my ham was delicious.
5:22
(crowd laughing)
5:24
And I was even more surprised when I found out
5:27
that some of the cast, like Judy Greer,
5:29
who plays Orlando Bloom's sister in the movie,
5:31
not only knew who I was, but was a fan of my cooking show.
5:36
- Oh yeah, I was totally freaking out,
5:38
when I found out she was in it, I thought that was genius.
5:41
She seemed really calm and collected
5:44
so it was a really perfect role for Paula to play. (laughs)
5:48
- [Paula] Orlando Bloom didn't know
5:49
who I was before we got started,
5:51
but after our early scenes,
5:53
well, let's just say we got acquainted pretty good.
5:58
- Paula was ever present as soon as she stepped on set.
6:01
She's such a huge, boisterous character.
6:03
She's an amazing woman.
6:04
And her stories and her life story is fascinating,
6:09
really fascinating.
6:10
- [Paula] Now y'all stay right there
6:12
'cause I wanna tell you the whole story
6:14
of how I got here, from the early days making sandwiches
6:18
to the restaurant, cookbooks,
6:19
the TV show, and now the movie.
6:22
We'll hear from some of my new friends,
6:24
the writer and director, Cameron Crow, the stars,
6:27
and we're gonna show you some scenes
6:29
from the movie "Elizabethtown."
6:30
And we're going to even show you how we made some.
6:34
So y'all stay tuned.
6:38
I so hope y'all are enjoying the show.
6:41
And if you do.
6:43
Be sure to click like, subscribe and
6:46
notification bell so you'll never miss a video.
6:50
And we'll be right back after the break.
6:54
(mellow music)
6:55
As I head to Hollywood,
6:56
I wanna share with y'all my walk to fame.
6:59
You see, I've been blessed
7:00
with more than I could ever have imagined,
7:04
and now I'm appearing
7:05
in the big Hollywood movie "Elizabethtown."
7:08
And I tell you, it hadn't been easy getting here,
7:11
but, you know, I wouldn't change a thing.
7:13
- And I never could understand
7:15
those fathers who didn't say I love you
7:17
'cause he said it all the time.
7:22
And to all of you who put this evening together,
7:25
it is gone beautifully, and thank you.
7:28
(indistinct)
7:30
- Oh he will, he will.
7:32
- I was 40 years old, I wanted my independence.
7:37
I wanted to be able to take care of myself.
7:39
I wanted to give myself and my children choices
7:42
instead of having to just take whatever came our way.
7:46
So I'd lay in bed at night thinking,
7:48
"What are you gonna do, Paula? It's now or never."
7:51
So I had to turn to what I really knew,
7:53
and that was my stove.
7:56
And so I cooked up this little plan
7:58
of opening a business called The Bag Lady.
8:00
- Mom called and said,
8:02
"I saw a woman in the Washington DC area
8:06
had put together a small door-to-door catering company."
8:10
And she thought it was a neat idea and knew she could cook
8:12
and said, "Let's start a little business. You want to?"
8:16
(laughs) And I said, "Sure Mom,"
8:19
I thought it'd be a summer job really.
8:23
- It was a nightmare. It really was.
8:24
And it was very close to going out and begging,
8:30
just pedaling this food.
8:31
- So I was at the same door at the same time every day,
8:34
and eventually somebody said, "Okay, I'll take lunch."
8:39
And then once they tasted it, mom was fixing everything.
8:41
So it was, "We got 'em."
8:44
- And The Bag Lady business just grew from there.
8:47
And about a year and a half later,
8:48
a unique opportunity arose.
8:50
A local motel had an empty kitchen and a dining room.
8:55
They needed somebody to come in and cook
8:57
and serve food three times a day, seven days a week.
9:02
This proved to be a whole new challenge
9:05
for me and my sons.
9:07
The worst years of my life was the five years
9:10
that I spent in the restaurant at Best Western.
9:15
It was just horrible.
9:17
And I can't even get the boys to talk about those days now.
9:21
It's even too painful for them.
9:23
(mellow music)
9:24
Now, I never back away from a challenge, y'all,
9:27
after five years of this grueling work,
9:30
we decided to move the business downtown,
9:33
and that restaurant was called the Lady & Sons.
9:37
And as if I wasn't busy enough, I got this crazy notion
9:41
that I was gonna sit down and write a cookbook.
9:44
- It took her five years to write this little cookbook
9:47
pieced together from our family's recipes.
9:49
And we finally had it printed out.
9:52
And when we did that, I thought,
9:54
"Wow, this is determination."
9:56
I mean, we'd gone from $200 to downtown
10:00
to 5,000 cookbooks and at that moment I said, "We're okay.
10:04
We've got a good business.
10:05
You know, we don't need our groceries on credit anymore."
10:08
- At this point, y'all, people were coming from all over
10:11
the country to try our food.
10:13
It was so hard to believe.
10:15
And then one day, a beautiful young woman
10:18
I knew from around town came in to eat,
10:21
and we got to chatting.
10:23
One day she said, "Do you know Gordon Elliot?"
10:25
I said, "Well, I know the name."
10:27
She said, "Well, he's a good friend of mine
10:30
and he's coming to Charleston
10:32
to do some Gordon Elliot door knock dinners."
10:36
And she said, "I'd love for him to come over and meet ya."
10:40
- And I remember what a big deal we all thought that was.
10:42
Jamie and mom and I were all really excited.
10:44
We had Gordon in there.
10:45
- And I walked in and within minutes
10:47
I met Paula, the boys, Bubba,
10:50
Aunt Peggy, and the whole crowd.
10:52
And I realized I was not only in a unique environment
10:55
in terms of the restaurant,
10:57
but a totally overwhelmingly wonderful family,
11:02
and Paula at the head of it.
11:04
So I put her on a show that I was doing at the time
11:06
called "Doorknock Dinners,"
11:07
where I would knock on the door of a home
11:08
and whoever answered, I promised them I could take my cook
11:12
or chef into their kitchen,
11:14
whatever we found in their refrigerator,
11:16
they would turn into a gourmet meal.
11:18
And Paula was my cook.
11:20
(man knocking)
11:21
Hello, how are you? Gordon Elliot from Food Network.
11:24
It's okay, we're not gonna harm you.
11:25
Paula Deen from Savannah, Georgia from...
11:27
- Hey, how are you?
11:28
= And the woman said, "No."
11:30
Kids are screaming, "I'm hungry."
11:31
"I can't muck around. Love the factor on TV. Bye-bye."
11:35
And Paula said, "Do you mind if I try?"
11:37
I said, "It's a dead issue to me, but go right ahead."
11:40
- This is what my two boys look like.
11:42
Those two big hunks back there.
11:45
- We got to...
11:45
- I had the tall blue-eyed one and the short brown-eyed one.
11:48
- We've actually gone...
11:48
- Well, I kind of scooted up there
11:50
and started talking to her.
11:53
And I told her, I said, "If you'll just let me in,
11:56
it'll be all right."
11:58
- Look, it's my refrigerator.
11:59
- Well, now look...
12:00
- Honey, listen, for 27 years I walked into a kitchen
12:04
with very little groceries...
12:05
- [Man] And she had to feed these two big...
12:06
- And look what I did.
12:08
I found enough to feed them with.
12:10
- It's for the kids too.
12:11
- Hmm. I don't know.
12:13
- [Man] Don't be shy.
12:14
- Why don't we take a look in the fridge?
12:15
- You wanna look? How about that?
12:16
- Okay. - Okay.
12:17
- [Paula] Let's see what we can...
12:18
- And I remember at the end of that show,
12:20
Gordon looking over at my mom and saying,
12:21
"Paula, you're a star.
12:23
You're gonna have your own show and I'm gonna produce it."
12:25
And that was in 1997. And sure enough...
12:29
- Who is she?
12:30
I can't take any credit for Paula.
12:33
Paula would've become a star.
12:34
Someone would've put her on a local TV channel.
12:36
Someone would've found her.
12:37
There's too many cameras wandering around America.
12:40
She would've been on "Food Finds"
12:41
probably a week after I had met her,
12:43
and she would've been a star.
12:44
I was just lucky enough to be there first.
12:46
- [Paula] So I did the "Doorknock Dinner" shows two times,
12:50
and then Food Network also put me on "Food Finds."
12:53
Ready, set, cook, and follow that food.
12:55
And just when this whirlwind of TV was getting going,
13:00
my show "Paula's Home Cooking" hit the air
13:03
in November, 2002.
13:05
So I'll tell y'all all about that next.
13:09
I wanna take y'all behind the scenes
13:10
of "Paula's Home Cooking,"
13:12
to see just how I did on my first day
13:14
on the set of the show,
13:16
and then show you the first day on the set
13:18
of the movie, "Elizabethtown."
13:21
I was so nervous.
13:23
And then later I'm walking the red carpet
13:26
at a Hollywood premier, baby.
13:31
I hope y'all are enjoying the show
13:33
and I want to hear from you.
13:35
Tell me what recipes or videos you'd like to see me
13:38
make by just leaving a short comment below.
13:42
Now, let's get back to the show, y'all.
13:46
My road to fame, as my friends say,
13:48
has been a long journey full of very unexpected surprises.
13:53
But I did try to make sure that every single experience
13:58
was gonna be preparing me for the next one.
14:00
I was just as nervous on the first day of the set
14:04
of "Elizabethtown" as I was a first day shooting
14:06
"Paula's Home Cooking."
14:08
- But the thing about what happened
14:09
on that first day on set,
14:14
she totally trusted everybody she was working with.
14:18
She knew that we cared for her and loved her
14:21
and wanted her to be nothing but a success.
14:24
- All right, tell me when.
14:25
- [Man] Okay, we are on. What are we making?
14:27
- Today I'm gonna make y'all
14:29
the most wonderful peach smoothies.
14:32
And my biggest concern was not having anybody to talk to.
14:38
Just trying to carry on a conversation right by myself
14:41
was very frightening to me, 'cause I kept saying,
14:45
"You know, Gordon, don't you think I ought to have a guest
14:48
with me or something?"
14:49
He said, "No, no, you can do it, you can do it."
14:55
And (laughs) one of a southern girl's
14:58
very favorite ingredients,
15:00
melted butter, can't have too much melted butter.
15:04
- We sat behind the camera and I talked to her
15:07
and I just let her cook.
15:09
I said to her, "Listen, you're not doing a show.
15:11
You're just having a few friends over
15:12
while you cook and chat.
15:14
That's all. Just talk to me.
15:16
But when you look up, don't look at me. Look at the camera."
15:19
- Yeah, baby. (laughs)
15:24
- And once "Paula's Home Cooking," hit the air,
15:26
that was a giant step.
15:29
We were literally bursting at the seams
15:32
at 311 West Congress Street.
15:33
On really good busy days, we would feed six or 800 people,
15:38
and there's no way we could've increased that
15:40
because we just didn't physically
15:42
have the space to do it in.
15:44
So "Paula's Home Cooking." really was the catalyst
15:47
for us moving into this bigger building.
15:50
- [Paula] The Lady & Sons restaurant is now housed
15:52
in a 15,000 square foot, 200 year old building,
15:58
slap in the heart of downtown Savannah.
16:00
Only till very recently have the boys and I
16:04
lifted our heads up to look and see what's happened.
16:07
- And the tour buses would ride by every day
16:09
and I'd hear 'em over the loudspeakers saying,
16:11
"This is the Lady & Sons restaurant,"
16:12
and that'd just be about it.
16:15
"They have good southern food."
16:16
And then the spiel would change as our business changed.
16:20
"She's got a cookbook out by Random House.
16:22
She has two cookbooks out by Random House.
16:24
You've seen her on "QBC,"
16:25
you've seen her on the Food Network."
16:27
And now the trolley companies ride by,
16:29
they have to start their little spiel a block away
16:31
'cause it's so long that they have to get it all in
16:34
before they pass by.
16:36
- I mean, what a surprise all this is.
16:39
Yeah, because at my age,
16:41
you feel like the most exciting thing that you're gonna do
16:46
is maybe get to scream out, "Bingo!"
16:50
You know? (laughs)
16:54
But boy was I wrong, y'all.
16:56
When I thought the biggest thing in my life would be
16:58
getting the Lady & Sons into this new building
17:00
and marrying my husband Michael.
17:03
Nope. Now I'm off to Hollywood, y'all.
17:06
My family and friends even had a surprise party for me
17:09
before I had to leave to go for rehearsals.
17:12
I think they might've been hoping to calm my nerves a bit.
17:15
One of the most surreal situations
17:19
that I've ever been in my life was when I went out there
17:22
to rehearse, and I start at the table and I walk around
17:27
and see all these names.
17:29
I see Susan Sarandon, and Kirsten Dunst, Judy Greer,
17:35
Cameron Crow, Paula Deen.
17:40
What? (laughs) What?
17:45
It was insane.
17:47
- You know, it's a funny thing
17:48
when you have a read through with a lot of actors
17:50
getting together, it's intimidating.
17:53
And I've found that sometimes people don't bring it.
17:59
They don't wanna put themselves out there
18:01
because they don't wanna be judged
18:02
by all of these other actors.
18:04
There's a story that Robert De Niro, for example,
18:08
barely speaks above a whisper when he does a read through.
18:12
And it's clearly him not just doing the part yet.
18:15
He'll do that later.
18:17
And not Paula, she brought it from moment one.
18:23
- Drew, I really should have your mother on this wall.
18:28
- Trying to fit in Drew (indistinct).
18:31
- And to hear these people
18:36
and to see these people do the work
18:40
that they are trained to do was amazing.
18:44
I was so into the story
18:47
and into the script that when it came to my lines,
18:50
I just sat there and I was still just like this.
18:54
And Gail said, "Paula, Paula, that's your line."
18:59
And I said, "Oh my God, I was the only one to screw up."
19:02
(laughs) But it was like I was in a trance
19:06
watching these people.
19:08
And so I read my two little lines
19:10
and I thought, "Hell, I'm outta here,
19:11
I know I'm outta here."
19:13
But yeah, I stayed and it was just wonderful.
19:18
- And Paula just brought the house down,
19:21
and all of us knew we were in the presence of somebody
19:23
who was good at this, but also it's who she was.
19:28
She brings people to her,
19:29
and if ever there was someone that could be relaxed
19:33
and casual and inviting and fun while cooking
19:38
an elaborate meal, it's Paula Deen,
19:41
which was really important because that character
19:43
that she plays is always making everybody entertained,
19:49
comfortable, happy, well fed and cared for.
19:54
And she did that from moment one.
19:56
- And that was just rehearsals.
19:58
Coming up next, I'm gonna take you behind the scenes
20:00
and I'm gonna do something
20:02
that women around the world would love to do.
20:06
I'm gonna shoot my first scenes with that sweet heart throb
20:10
Orlando Bloom.
20:11
It was a little awkward being in the bedroom
20:17
with somebody so young.
20:21
But I quickly got over it. (laughs)
20:28
I was a very gentle with him. (laughs)
20:32
I so hope y'all are enjoying the show.
20:35
And if you do.
20:37
Be sure to click like, subscribe and
20:40
notification bell so you'll never miss a video.
20:44
And we'll be right back after the break.
20:50
Well, it's showtime.
20:52
I'm in Hollywood and I'm ready for my closeup.
20:55
Rehearsals went well and everybody being so nice
20:59
and friendly and generous made this all so much easier.
21:04
Not that the role was that big of a stretch or anything.
21:07
The character was much like who I am.
21:12
I didn't have to fake an accent
21:15
because the woman was southern.
21:20
She was all about family, holding the family together,
21:25
and she loved being in her house and in her kitchen cooking.
21:30
So, I mean, that's not a farfetch at all for me.
21:34
Had I been asked to play another role,
21:40
that might have been very difficult.
21:43
But to me, what they were asking me to do
21:45
was just really to be myself, but my name was gonna be Dora.
21:52
- Paula is really good at improvising.
21:57
And there's one scene up in the bedroom in "Elizabethtown,"
21:59
and the bedroom was the archive of the family photographs.
22:04
So it was kind of like all that wall space is occupied
22:09
by family members alive and gone and they all lived there.
22:16
And this person who's so much about life
22:19
honors these people every day
22:21
when she gets up and goes to bed.
22:23
And that's Aunt Dora.
22:25
So she's pointing out to Drew,
22:27
who's been this solitary character who his family is.
22:31
So I wrote this thing for Paula
22:33
and I gave it to her just a minute before we shot the scene
22:36
where I go, "Paula, I want you to try this
22:39
and say that this is Orlando's cousin Dicky Connolly
22:44
who had three nipples, and every man has his burden.
22:50
And that was Dicky's, but he was a poet."
22:53
And it's kind of a tough line,
22:57
but Paula just slammed it outta the park
23:00
and we were all cracking up.
23:02
And it was part of about a hundred things she did
23:06
in that bedroom scene.
23:07
- So come on in.
23:09
You know, it's not every day I invite good looking men
23:11
into my bedroom, but I just wanted you to meet your family,
23:15
the Baylors and the Conleys.
23:17
Let's start with Dicky Conley.
23:19
Now, he was, he was an alcoholic.
23:22
He had a drinking problem and he also had three nipples.
23:25
He had three nipples and he was a poet.
23:29
- We sort of improvised bits as well.
23:32
There were photos on the wall and we picked things out
23:35
and played with them.
23:36
I mean, a lot of what was really surprising
23:38
was that really what Paula had
23:41
was a sort of very broad script.
23:45
It was kind of like, "This is your domain
23:47
and this is the idea.
23:50
There's relatives on the walls,"
23:52
and she kind of just went with it
23:53
and let things happen, which was sort of...
23:56
I'm not even sure whether the three nipples thing
23:58
came out of, I'm not sure whether that was Paula's
24:00
or whether that was Cameron's,
24:01
but it was kind of, that's how naturally it flowed.
24:04
So it was good.
24:05
- And there was one scene where I asked her to just
24:08
go with Orlando Bloom a little bit
24:09
and ask him where his mother was
24:12
'cause his mother doesn't show up for the funeral at first.
24:15
And Paula said, "How's your mother? How's she doing, Drew?"
24:20
And it's a lot of people's favorite part of the movie
24:24
in that here is somebody so true to life that has manners,
24:29
has opinions, but you're gonna see it
24:32
in a very small glimpse,
24:35
and that glimpse is gonna give you volumes.
24:38
And that was great of Paula.
24:40
- How's your mother, Drew, honey?
24:42
You know, I really should have a picture of her in here.
24:47
And this picture is...
24:49
- [Woman] Aunt dora!
24:50
- Coming. Ho... Lena.
24:53
Lena, just watch over it.
24:55
Two more minutes. I'm coming.
24:57
This was the last picture taken of your daddy.
25:00
This was just three days ago, Drew.
25:02
He was the most loving man.
25:04
- [Woman] Aunt Dora!
25:05
- Coming.
25:06
Well, you stay as long as you need to.
25:09
- It was was very surprising how comfortable in her ease
25:13
she was with the whole thing,
25:14
which was great considering it was like, you know...
25:17
It was a very sensitive and poignant moment,
25:20
and it's easy to overplay those moments
25:25
or to sort of slightly, for them to go askew.
25:28
But she was very much in the moment
25:31
and comfortable with it.
25:33
- All right. (indistinct)
25:36
- All right now, I want us to have some organization, Lena.
25:39
- Just from having done it so much, she has such a command
25:42
of how she moves through rooms and brings that camera in.
25:48
And she did that in the movie.
25:49
There's a great scene
25:50
where Orlando Bloom first enters her house.
25:54
And it was a big important scene for me
25:58
when I wrote the script
25:59
because he's just come from the visitation
26:02
for his father in a funeral home.
26:06
And the scene is meant to go from seeing death,
26:11
the death of a loved one to an explosion of life.
26:14
And the cut is from that funeral home
26:17
to Aunt Dora's kitchen.
26:19
And in that kind of explosion of life and humanity
26:24
and Aunt Dora having brought all these people together
26:27
to celebrate Orlando's father,
26:29
here comes Orlando and Paula as Aunt Dora sees him
26:33
and she turns from the stove
26:35
where she's making some hoe cakes,
26:37
and she says, "Oh my God," and it's just a beautiful moment
26:44
because she sees her brother in him,
26:47
she sees a member of the family that needs to be welcomed
26:51
and loved and it's all on her face.
26:55
And the two forces come together and she welcomes Orlando.
27:00
And I don't know that you can do that as easily
27:03
if you haven't welcomed people so regularly
27:06
and made yourself a part of their homes
27:09
and vice versa the way she does on her TV show.
27:11
She's so good at it.
27:12
(indistinct)
27:20
- Lena, look at Mitch's baby.
27:24
You look just like your daddy, and who's been feeding you?
27:27
- Do you want something to drink?
27:28
- Wait just a minute, I got to talk to Drew.
27:30
- We, we hope you're gonna stay for a while.
27:31
(indistinct)
27:33
- Don't let everybody... Don't let this overpower you.
27:35
- You just want, I think watching a movie
27:37
to feel like the people are real.
27:41
Those are people like you know,
27:42
people that are in your family.
27:44
That's a wonderful thing when you're watching a movie
27:47
when you never feel like somebody's playing dress up
27:52
and putting on a show for you.
27:54
It's more like you're a fly on the wall.
27:58
I love that, I always strive for that
27:59
in the movies that I've done.
28:02
- Coming up next, the first day of shooting
28:05
was full of surprises.
28:08
(metal grinding) (people gasping)
28:10
And great time of day.
28:11
I gotta tell y'all about the role
28:13
that food plays in this movie, "Elizabethtown."
28:15
Imagine that, me talking about food,
28:19
and later, I want y'all to join me as I try
28:21
to get all the dogged up for the red carpet premier.
28:27
I hope y'all are enjoying the show
28:30
and I want to hear from you.
28:31
Tell me what recipes or videos you'd like to see me
28:34
make by just leaving a short comment below.
28:38
Now, let's get back to the show, y'all.
28:43
One thing I learned about shooting "Elizabethtown"
28:45
is that movies are not shot in order.
28:48
So it sort of made sense
28:49
that one of the first scenes we shot
28:51
was actually one of the last in the movie.
28:54
It can make it confusing,
28:56
but the laughter sure makes it easier.
28:59
The funeral scene was really right comical.
29:04
It took place in Kentucky. So hot.
29:09
So hot, but there was some glitches
29:13
in this funeral. (laughs)
29:16
- You've all peaked emotionally the night before,
29:19
and now it's just the ceremony
29:21
of actually saying goodbye to Mitch.
29:23
But, man, these are the weary walking wounded.
29:28
These are the people that have survived this whole event.
29:31
- By that point, so many disasters
29:37
and fiascos, mini fiascos leading up to the major fiasco
29:41
have hit that it's a sort of comic relief
29:44
when the coffin goes down without anyone in it,
29:47
other than the blue suit.
29:49
- Friends and neighbors, we are gathered here
29:52
to say our final goodbyes to my dear friend Mitch.
29:57
Aw.
30:06
(metal grinding) (people gasping)
30:14
(metal grinding)
30:17
(metal whining)
30:20
(people laughing) (metal whining)
30:24
(man sighing)
30:25
- This was the first day of filming.
30:28
It was a big scene with everybody standing around.
30:31
I'd written it into the script,
30:32
but it actually happened naturally and surprised everybody.
30:36
And I think we felt kind of blessed on that day
30:40
'cause there was this happy accident that had happened.
30:44
Everybody laughed, scenes in the movie broke the tension,
30:49
and it got us going.
30:52
And that's how we began on "Elizabethtown."
30:58
And I love that that scene was in the trailer.
31:00
And I love that Paula's seen in the kitchen
31:03
welcoming Orlando was in the trailer,
31:05
'cause those are sort of really representative
31:10
moments of the movie.
31:12
It's about life and loss and family
31:15
and the explosion of love that can come out
31:19
of a situation like that.
31:21
And we began in a graveyard.
31:23
- Aunt Dora really rose represents the family,
31:25
and I guess what people like to do in the south,
31:31
in the Heartlands of America, as it's called,
31:33
when somebody dies is they celebrate.
31:36
And the majority of that is through eating. (laughs)
31:40
So that brings people together.
31:42
Its the kitchen being the heart of the house,
31:44
and so really Paula as Aunt Dora
31:49
was really the heart of that house.
31:50
And that's a really present part of the movie.
31:55
- Food is life, and in a movie that begins
31:58
with the unfortunate death of Orlando Bloom's father,
32:03
I wanted this movie to go from death to life.
32:06
It kind of begins with an ending and ends with a beginning.
32:10
And one of the things that Orlando's character learns,
32:12
I think, is life is everywhere.
32:15
Life is all around you.
32:17
He's been kind of an interior guy,
32:19
but here he comes to Kentucky and he's Aunt Dora's kitchen
32:21
and he sees food and memories and life
32:26
and family are all one.
32:29
And he learns to like share food with everybody
32:34
and what that means in the course of the story
32:38
and I just think not all of us have had that upbringing,
32:42
but it's so great to show it in a real way.
32:45
And it was important that we get somebody
32:48
that really honored food, whether they talked a lot about it
32:51
or just showed it as Paula did.
32:53
- You know, funeral food is real important to a southerner.
32:57
We put a lot of love into our food.
33:03
And that sounds kind of corny and cliche-ish,
33:06
but it's the truth, a lot, lot of love.
33:11
- [Man] Bill Banyan is not gonna be be here.
33:13
(indistinct)
33:17
- [Man] What'd I do with my drink?
33:18
- [Woman] You know, I think...
33:20
(indistinct) (woman laughing)
33:24
(roast thudding) (dogs moaning)
33:25
(dogs barking)
33:26
- [Man] Oh my God, look at that...
33:27
(indistinct) (people yelling)
33:29
- Let go of that thing! Let go of that thing!
33:31
- [Man] Oh my God.
33:33
(all yelling)
33:37
- All those people in that scene became part of that family
33:40
as we were filming.
33:42
I know people say that,
33:43
but we actually did become kind of a family.
33:46
- Working with Cameron
33:47
is a different sort of experience altogether,
33:49
and it requires something that isn't really acting.
33:52
It's more just that old sense of you don't wanna act,
33:57
you wanna be, and that means just being in the moment.
34:01
And I never could understand those fathers
34:03
who didn't say I love you 'cause he said it all the time.
34:07
And to all of you who put this evening together,
34:09
it is gone beautifully, and thank you.
34:13
(indistinct)
34:14
- Oh he will, he will.
34:16
- Orlando is a sweet, gentle young man,
34:22
kind of quiet and low key and very focused.
34:29
This was such a great, wonderful
34:31
group of people to work with.
34:32
On a movie, there's a lot of hurry up and wait,
34:35
a lot of downtime, so you get to spend a lot of time
34:39
just kind of sitting around and talking
34:41
and getting to know your co-stars.
34:44
- It felt like we were all a big family all the time.
34:47
I would leave work if I didn't have to work
34:49
for the next couple days and feel really homesick
34:51
for the set when I was in my own house. (laughs)
34:54
But when we were shooting,
34:55
I think it was in October when we were shooting
34:58
this big scene at the memorial service
35:00
when we were all in Los Angeles for a couple weeks,
35:02
and I was talking about wanting to make Christmas cookies
35:06
for people and starting to get ready to think about that,
35:09
and she taught me how to make her Paula Deen Peppermint Bar.
35:13
And so she brought in one of her tapes of her shows
35:17
and showed how you smash up the peppermint sticks
35:21
and taught me how to double boil the chocolate
35:23
without having a double boiler by just using the pot
35:26
and a glass bowl and spread it out on wax paper
35:30
on my kitchen table and then sprinkle it in
35:32
and let it dry in the fridge.
35:34
And so I did that and that was what I gave
35:35
for Christmas presents to a lot of people,
35:38
was the Paula Deen Peppermint Bar.
35:41
I'll never forget it, it's my recipe now that I can make.
35:45
My one thing. (laughs)
35:47
- Okay, y'all.
35:48
Coming up next, let's get ready for the premier,
35:52
walk the red carpet and go see the movie
35:55
for the very first time.
35:57
It's easy for me to say that now.
36:00
I'm not sure what I'm gonna be thinking
36:01
when the lights go down and that movie starts to roll.
36:06
I so hope y'all are enjoying the show.
36:09
And if you do.
36:10
Be sure to click like, subscribe and
36:13
notification bell so you'll never miss a video.
36:17
And we'll be right back after the break.
36:22
After all the years of hard work
36:25
where Hollywood could never have been a dream,
36:28
I've achieved more than I could ever possibly imagine,
36:32
and now here I am, as they tell me,
36:34
poised to walk down the red carpet
36:36
as a newly minted movie star.
36:40
I can't believe that this is happening to me,
36:43
but I don't stop and think about it too very much.
36:47
I just try to be very thankful
36:49
and enjoy each ride that I get to take.
36:53
- I don't think Paula even realized it would be this big.
36:56
It is remarkable, I think that it has come to this.
37:02
I'm excited.
37:03
- It was so hard to try to relax,
37:05
especially with me knowing
37:07
what was coming up later that night.
37:09
We've got a dinner and then we'll walk the red carpet
37:12
into the theater is my understanding,
37:14
and then we'll watch the movie that we've all been waiting
37:17
a long, long time to see.
37:18
You know, the red carpet thing was something that I'd seen
37:22
for years, but never ever did I think I'd be on one.
37:26
And it was just so exciting thinking about it
37:29
that I began to worry about something.
37:32
And I said, "Paula, you're not that good in high heels.
37:35
What if you fall down?"
37:37
And then thankfully I got some tips from the big dog.
37:41
- Just kind of lift a hand up like that.
37:44
They go... Yes!
37:47
I feel it.
37:48
- I will try. You see, I'm going like this. (laughs)
37:51
- Okay, let's try one like that. There they are.
37:54
(people laughing)
37:57
- [Paula] How was that?
37:58
- Well, you're better than me.
37:59
- Kind of a wave Anna thing.
38:00
- I love it. Give me your hand.
38:04
(kisses) I'm so excited to see you here.
38:05
- Oh my God, is that not the sweetest thing in the world?
38:08
(both laughing)
38:10
- It's exciting, 'cause this whole town
38:13
is all hopped up on movies right now.
38:14
The Toronto Film Festival, it's a real peak
38:18
in the movie going season.
38:21
Mostly I'm just happy that the actors are here
38:22
and we get to share it and feel the audience.
38:25
And when I knew Paula was here,
38:28
I mean, things were getting good.
38:30
- I can't tell you on what a pleasure it was to...
38:33
- I had so much fun.
38:34
- Work on the movie with you,
38:36
and for this to be the first time for me.
38:38
- Have you seen it yet?
38:39
- No. (Orlando Bloom gasps)
38:40
- No. It was so great.
38:43
You are so great.
38:44
- I was such a lucky chick to be with y'all.
38:47
- Are you kidding? We were so lucky to have you.
38:49
- Oh. It's so great. It's so cool.
38:51
- And with just a few chances to practice
38:53
and a few encouraging words from the professionals,
38:56
it was off to the red carpet.
38:58
(swelling music) (crowd cheering)
39:08
Some interviews, photographs.
39:10
It was just like living a dream.
39:12
It's like you see in the movies,
39:14
but somehow you're watching yourself
39:16
and pinching yourself at the same time.
39:19
And just when you're starting to get comfortable
39:21
with it all, it's off to see the movie
39:23
for the very first time.
39:27
Somebody asked me a while ago, one of the interviewers said,
39:29
"Well, how deep into the movie
39:31
will it be before we see you?"
39:34
I said, "Great time of day. I have no idea."
39:36
They said, "How many lines did you have?"
39:38
I said, "You know, (indistinct) I don't know."
39:40
I said, "What I can tell you is I changed clothes
39:43
four different times for the movie.
39:45
I had four wardrobe changes."
39:48
And they said, "Oh, that's pretty good," So we'll see.
39:52
I can't wait to see it.
39:53
The anticipation is killing me, y'all.
39:56
But first, just one more introduction.
39:59
- [Man] Paula Deen.
40:00
(crowd clapping)
40:03
- It was a little almost unexpected
40:08
even though I know I've done it and I've been working on it.
40:12
It was still like a little unexpected, but how exciting.
40:19
You know, what a nice surprise for this to happen to me.
40:23
I can't tell you how exciting and thrilling it was
40:28
to totally move from a world that you're used to
40:31
and to be a part of that world, even for a short time.
40:36
It was very, very exciting.
40:39
(crowd cheering) (mellow music)
40:40
Well, I felt just like Cinderella in a fairytale.
40:44
But the very best part is that it's all true.
40:47
You know, maybe there is something to this Hollywood stuff.
40:51
Hey, y'all, it's Paula Deen.
40:53
Now, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it
40:57
and click the subscribe button as well as the notification
41:01
and bail to be alerted when I post a video.
41:04
Love and Best Dishes Y'all.
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