Before there was Kim, there was Paris. Before there was The Real Housewives, there was The Simple Life. Before there was "that's lit", there was "that's hot". Paris Hilton walked so that 2020's influencers could run... but what do we all really know about the biggest pop culture icon of the noughties? By Hilton’s own account, not much. 

“I feel like the whole world thinks they know me, no one really knows who I am,” Paris says in the opening line of the trailer for her new documentary, This Is Paris. All that looks about to change. Hilton’s documentary, which premieres on YouTube in mere minutes, promises a genuine, unfiltered look at the multi-hyphenate and her journey from childhood abuse to global stardom – and examines the consequences of finding fame during arguably the most toxic tabloid era we’ve ever endured. 

We (virtually) sat down with Paris Hilton ahead of the release. Given her newfound candour, we thought now would be the perfect time to get her thoughts on pretty much everything we’ve ever been curious about. (Really, everything.) That House of Wax death scene? The merits of having three iPhones? The potential demise of TikTok? We had just 15 minutes (and a crappy Zoom connection) to cover off all our burning questions – here’s how we went.

Paris Hilton On: Australians

“I love Australians. Like you guys are just so like real and free and fun and just amazing vibes. Um, so I really enjoyed being able to live there for a few months [while filming House of Wax] ... It's one of my favourite places in the world. I love going to Sydney and the Gold Coast.”

House of Wax death scene 

“I thought it was just epic and I've always loved horror films and scary movies. And I just thought that my death scene is like one of the most iconic ones ever, even though it was very hard to shoot. Cause I was like in lingerie, we were shooting till like six in the morning, so it was just really cold, but it just turned out really just like an epic scene that everyone always remembers.”

Cameos 

“I love the cameo in the OC because it's just fun just to see all of the memes that people have made from it and just like seeing it on social media. I loved seeing that.

“And then Zoolander of course is such an iconic film. Ben Stiller's one of my favourite actors, but my favourite cameo was in The Cat In The Hat with Mike Myers. And he is like in this rave scene and I am like dressed up in this really cute kind of baby doll outfit with like two ponytails and I'm dancing and he comes up and we started dancing together and I, I love that scene. I think it's so cute. And it was so much fun to shoot it. I love it.”

Documentaries 

“My favourite? Well of course mine but ... I really enjoyed Lady Gaga’s documentary and also Katy Perry’s [Part of Me]. And then my favourite of all time is Madonna's. That movie is just so iconic and that was the first documentary that I watched on one of my idols.” 

Releasing another album

“I've actually been in the studio this entire time during quarantine writing music [and] producing. I just shot a music video a couple of days ago, so I do have new music coming out in the next few months. I have a love song coming out about my boyfriend. So, yes, stay tuned because there's more music coming.”

TikTok 

“I love TikTok. I think it's so much fun. It's so brilliant how creative you could be and just there's so many – I don't know, if you like dancing, if you like comedy.. – there's just so many really cool features with the editing and I love it. So I really hope it doesn't get banned because it's just too much fun.”

Reality TV

“People call me all the time to do reality shows and to bring other shows that I've done back, but I'm just so focused on my business and my work that I don't know if I would have time for it. If they have a really good idea, I would think about it.”

Phones

"I used to have five phones, but I consolidated it to three because just like going to Coachella and all these places like holding five phones is a nightmare. Cause I was losing them all the time.

"So now I have three, and one of them is for my friends. The other one is for business. The third one is- everyone always asks for my number and I hate saying no and I don't want to hurt people's feelings. So instead of saying no, I give them that number. And I also use that number for when my friends and I prank call people because it doesn't lead back to me. 

"[If people call that third phone] Well, I see it, maybe I'll answer, but usually not."

BTS

“I love ‘Dynamite’. Their new song that just came out.” 

Lockdown playlists

“I’ve just been loving listening to music that puts me in a good mood. And one of my favorite albums is Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. I'm obsessed with that album. I love those songs and I love RÜFÜS DU SOL, who I saw play at Burning Man last year. I met them and they were just so nice and they're so talented. I’m obsessed with their music.” 

Filming This is Paris

“It was really hard, just, you know, speaking about and having to relive all of these moments that I had tried to forget about and try to just not think about. Just going into it, it was almost like a therapeutic experience because I trusted the director [Alexandra Dean] so much and her and I just became like sisters where I felt like I could tell her anything. So it actually ended up being just such a weight off my shoulders to finally just let out all of those emotions of just the terrible things that I had went through in my life.”

Making change 

“On a serious note, I hope that other survivors who have been abused or are in abusive relationships either get out of them and know that it's wrong and not feel alone, or also come forward and tell their story. And I hope that [the documentary] makes a difference. Also [I hope] to shut these places down where children are being abused ... By me speaking out about this, I am exposing them. They're going to be held accountable and it's already making a difference. I've been contacted by different parents and children who, [when] the parents watched the trailer for my film literally went and drove to the school and pulled their kids out.

“And now finally believe what they were telling them about being abused ... I'm not stopping there, I'm using my platform. I've contacted senator Sara Gesler, the senator of Oregon, who’s fighting for legislation to shut these places down. So it's really empowering to actually be making a difference and helping make it so this never happens to another child again.” 

This is Paris’ release 

“I have so many just like a range of emotions. I'm so excited. I'm happy, I'm nervous. I'm an open book in this. I've never been so real and just raw and authentic in my life and I've never really showed the public who I am. So just to let it all out there and now there's no secrets, everything that's happened in my life, I've now said. So yeah, that's, that's a lot to take in. It's just like having your diary and like opening it up to the whole entire world. So it's a lot, but I hope that people understand me now.

“I hope that people just get to know the real me and see that I'm a human being, that I have feelings. That any misconceptions that they had of me.. I hope they could now see and understand that I'm not a dumb blonde, I'm just very good at pretending to be one.”

Paris Hilton's new documentary, This is Paris, premieres on YouTube on Monday, September 14 at 2pm AEST.

Written by Alice Griffin, writer and editor-in-chief of MTV Australia. Follow Alice on Twitter @_alicegriffin.