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NYT: Paris Hilton Talks About Her Past in New Documentary
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/style/paris-hilton-documentary.html
By Ilana Kaplan
Lounging cross-legged on her bed at home in Beverly Hills and
wearing a turquoise hoodie, Paris Hilton appeared at ease. There
were none of the affectations that have defined her public image for
two decades: the flat baby voice, the tiny, shimmering outfits, the
faux ditziness, the stance that everything cool was "hot."
"I built this kind of shield around me and kind of this persona,
almost to hide behind, because I've been through so much where I
just didn't even want to think about it anymore," Ms. Hilton, 39,
said over Zoom. Behind her stood a towering mirror illuminated by a
sea of LED lights that refracted off her platinum hair like
diamonds.
Before there were influencers, there was Paris Hilton: a beautiful
blank slate of a person onto whom all kinds of ideas and brand
sponsorships could be projected. She was the celebrity burnished, if
not created, by a sex tape. She was the face of the Sidekick (and
the victim of a Sidekick hack that brought more of her personal life
into the public eye). She was a reality star, trying her hand at
manual labor as a rich person. She recorded music, modeled, appeared
at parties, made TV cameos, wrote an advice book. And she was
mercilessly criticized, written off as "famous for being famous."
Regardless of whether that characterization was fair at the time, it
seems pretty hard to defend these days. Ms. Hilton spends more than
250 days of the year traveling the world as a D.J., raking in a
reported $1 million per gig. She oversees more than 19 product
lines, including fragrances, clothing (for humans and pets) and
accessories. And so many people are now famous for being famous, she
might now seem more venerable pioneer than contemptible
fly-by-night.
Now, moreover, she's ready to talk about the past. On Sept. 14, the
documentary "This Is Paris" will be released on YouTube. It aims to
crack the facade she created in the aughts, focusing instead on the
decade that preceded her fame.
Ms. Hilton said that she gave the director, Alexandra Dean, full
creative control over the project. "It was really difficult for me
because I'm so used to having so much control and 'The Simple Life,'
just having everything perfect and edited," she said. "And with
this, I had just to let go of all that control and let them use
everything."
There are moments of opulence in the film--jet-setting around the
world, endless racks of gowns and stilettos and closets stacked with
jewelry she's never worn--and she's quick to remind that she's
"never been photographed in the same thing twice."
But at the heart of the documentary is trauma, stemming from Ms.
Hilton's years spent in boarding schools for troubled teens. The
last one she attended was Provo Canyon School, a psychiatric
residential treatment center in Utah, where she would spend 11
months.
"They just assumed it was like a normal boarding school because
that's the way that they portray it to parents and people who are
putting their children in these places," Ms. Hilton said of her
parents, Kathy and Rick Hilton (her mother appears in the
documentary). Before the making of the film, Ms. Hilton had never
told her family about what happened to her.
The night she arrived at Provo, Ms. Hilton recalls in the
documentary, she was taken from her bed as if she was being
kidnapped. She said she and her peers were routinely given mystery
pills, and when Ms. Hilton refused to take them, she would be sent
to solitary confinement for sometimes 20 hours at a time without
clothing. She also claims emotional, verbal and physical abuse from
teachers and administrators. "It was just like living in hell," Ms.
Hilton said.
The school has noted on its website that it changed ownership in
2000, after Ms. Hilton was a student. A representative from Provo
said the school does "not condone or promote any form of abuse."
They added that "any and all alleged/suspected abuse is reported to
our state regulatory authorities, law enforcement and Child
Protective Services immediately as required."
In the years since, Ms. Hilton has grappled with nightmares and
avoided therapy, which played a big part in her residential
treatment programs. "From being at Provo and those types of schools,
just the therapists in there I felt were just not good people," she
said. "I just have never, ever trusted them."
The experience broke other forms of trust, too, Ms. Hilton said. In
the documentary, she can be seen installing spyware in her house
before her boyfriend stays there while she's out of town.
"That definitely affected me in my relationships because I just
didn't know what real love was, and from being abused, you just get
kind of used to it almost where you think it's normal," Ms. Hilton
said.
Later events reinforced that belief. When a sex tape of her and her ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked online without her consent in
2003, the footage received widespread attention, and subjected Ms.
Hilton to ridicule.
"To have that come out, such a private moment, and for the whole
world to be watching it and laughing like it's some sort of
entertainment, was just traumatizing," Ms. Hilton said. Still, in
some ways, the exposure turbocharged her career as something other
than an heiress, leading to reality show gigs and other deals; her
friend and former assistant, Kim Kardashian, followed the same path
to worldwide fame a few years later.
"Kim and I have been friends since we were little girls and have
traveled the world together," Ms. Hilton said. "I could not be more
proud of everything she has accomplished."
Publicly, Ms. Hilton has not always voiced support for women who
have come forward with stories of abuse. But since she told the
reporter Irin Carmon, in 2017, that the women who accused President
Donald Trump--a family friend--of sexual misconduct were looking
for "fame" and "attention," her perspective has changed.
"I'm happy that there's been the #MeToo movement where people have
completely changed their views on that," Ms. Hilton said. "But at
the start, it was just really unfair for a woman to be treated that
way because somebody exposed them."
She learned to mask her emotions. "In every relationship I've always
been like, 'Oh, this is amazing. I've never been so happy,'" she
said. "It was just something I would just say to the world, even
when the worst things in the world were happening to me in my
relationships. I didn't want anyone to know because I didn't want my
brand to be affected."
Originally scheduled to premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in April,
"This Is Paris" is one of a handful of celebrity documentaries and
docu-series to be released by streaming giants in recent years.
Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers have
all joined Ms. Hilton in giving an "inside look" at their lives.
Of course, depending how involved celebrities are with their
documentaries, a compelling narrative can be a way to build up or
defend their public image.
Susanne Daniels, YouTube's global head of original content, said she
doesn't see these documentaries as a "defense." "They know that
their image is complex, and at some point, they're ready to share
all the complexities of why they've made the choices they have," she
said, of the celebrities. "I think to a certain extent it can be
considered brave."
For Ms. Daniels, every documentary YouTube takes on is "a leap of
faith" that there's going to be a "surprise or twist." "I thought to
myself, 'OK, either this is a really good hook that these producers
created because they're really good producers, in which case maybe
they could make it work, or just for real, it's going to be
incredibly compelling," Ms. Daniels said. She was won over. "I hope
the audience is, too, because I think Paris is deserving of that
revelation," she said.
Now, Ms. Hilton hopes to use her brand for good. She wants to expose institutions that administer cruel psychiatric treatment to minors,
working with former students who said they had similar experiences
to do so. "I'm really going to dedicate a lot of my life to helping
make this happen and shutting these places down," she said.
She's no longer interested in playing a character, she said. "I'm
happy for people to know that I am not a dumb blonde," she said.
"I'm just very good at pretending to be one."
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