Introducing the real Paris Hilton. The icon, who has spent her entire life in the spotlight, is ready to show the real side of herself that the world has never seen.
“This is something I’ve never done before, just from always playing a character, being this persona. That’s all I’ve ever known or ever been,” Hilton, 38, told Us Weekly exclusively at the Television Critics’ Association’ winter press tour. Her new documentary, This Is Paris, dives into Hilton’s past and present — and includes no filters or editing on her part.
“Even watching, I was like, ‘Oh my God, can we cut this?’ They’re like, ‘Nope, you don’t have editing approval,'” she said. “It’s a very vulnerable position, but it’s also very empowering. I feel, especially it being 2020, I think it’s all about being real and authentic and showing who you truly are. Some parts are very traumatic or hard in my life and I want to be able to tell my story so people can understand me and also understand themselves.”
During the panel for the upcoming YouTube documentary, the DJ explained that when she landed The Simple Life in 2003, she was instructed to lean into a certain character.
“Basically before the show started they said, ‘We want this to be Green Acres meets Clueless, and we want you to play into the character of, you don’t know what you’re doing.’ Kind of just having fun with it in a way,” she told reporters. “Obviously, I know what Walmart is. Little lines I would say like that, it was all about entertainment.”
She doesn’t blame people for thinking that is the real her and having misconceptions, the businesswoman told Us.
“In everything else, I’ve always had like the baby voice and I’ve always been so different,” she explained. “I don’t blame people for having misconceptions, because I created it with that character, who everyone thought was a real person. … Now I’m actually showing people that that was not really me. I was in on the joke.”
Hilton continued: “I know exactly what I was doing, and I’m happy that people are going to finally see that that’s not it. I think, also, just the coming from a privileged family, everyone assumes everything was handed to me and they don’t understand all the work that’s going into it. In this film, you can see just how much how hard I work, the work ethic I have and why and how I built this empire and it wasn’t just because someone gave it to me. I did it myself.”
Over the past year, cameras followed the heiress and her family and friends daily, capturing her extremely busy schedule, like her “250 days of the year on a plane.” It also included intense interviews. In the sneak peek shown during the TCA panel, the former reality star becomes very emotional and recalls a “trauma” that happened in her life, causing nightmares and shocking even her family.
“I discuss things that I’ve never talked about with even my family and my sister,” she told Us. “The director got us to talk about things, things that I’ve been through and things my mom didn’t know, my sister didn’t know. We’re such a close family but it brought us even closer because I finally was myself with them.”
This Is Paris debuts on YouTube in May.
