Perez Hilton Talks Most Likely to Die and How He’d Like to Be Remembered
Drew Tinnin
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Love him or hate him, you may want to watch Perez Hilton get killed in Anthony DiBlasi’s new horror slasher film Most Likely to Die (review). Unless you count 2001’s Campfire Stories (not to be confused with 1997’s Campfire Tales that’s MUCH better), this is Hilton’s first horror film, and he serves as some much needed comic relief as he and his other former classmates try to stay alive on the eve of their 10-year high school reunion.
Does Perez actually die, or does he make it all the way until the end? You’ll have to see the movie to find that out, but if you make it to the end of this interview, you might just form a new opinion about Hilton as he navigates his way through acting, blogging, and even fatherhood.
DC: For horror fans, high school probably sucked because they were seen as weird or outcasts. Can you relate to that with your experience in high school?
PH: Yeah, I can totally relate for many reasons. First, I was a closeted gay, which made high school challenging. Nowadays, people are coming out in middle school or younger in many instances. But in the Nineties when I went into high school, that just really wasn’t very commonplace. So that made it difficult, feeling like I wasn’t able to truly be myself and also just me wanting more from life than what was expected of me. I went to this very homogeneous school that was ninety-nine percent Latino like myself – my parents are both Cuban – and it was this breeding factory for lawyers, doctors, engineers, or politicians. So if you didn’t do one of those four things, you were a freak or a weirdo… I never wanted to be like everybody else.
DC: What would they say you were most “likely” to do after high school?
PH: I don’t know what they would’ve said! I don’t even know if I knew. I knew I wanted to be an actor. I had given that up after moving to L.A. and trying and failing. And then I started working as a writer, a journalist like yourself, and I was quite happy doing that. Life took me on a different journey, and now it’s taking me back to acting. So it’s a real awesome 360.
DC: If the characters in Most Likely to Die are similar to the Jock, the Criminal, the Princess, and the Basket Case in The Breakfast Club, who does your character, Freddie, resemble the most?
PH: I brought a lot of myself; that’s what you should do as an actor. How can I make this as relatable as possible? I have to thank the director, Anthony [DiBlasi], for his guidance and also for his willingness to hear me out. Before we started filming, I expressed my excitement for being a part of it and I also asked him if it was possible to change my character a little bit. I’ve done a lot of acting over the last ten years, but the majority of the acting I’ve been doing has been playing myself. So this is the first time: (a) that people are seeing me in a movie in a long time – or ever, and (b) they’re seeing me play a role. It was written as a straight character and I asked if we could make him gay, and then the comedy kind of just came. I saw him… like the Jamie Kennedy character in the Scream series. Every film needs a little bit of that I think, even horror films. Some of the best horror films are also the funniest. Freddy Krueger is hilarious throughout the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
I’ve been in a horror movie before if you want to look it up. I was in a horror movie in 2000 called Campfire Stories, this forgotten gem of a horror film. I don’t know if people could even find it anymore.
DC: Would you say Most Likely to Die is a throwback to early Eighties slashers? It has that vibe.
PH: In the Eighties I watched more of the mainstream [movies] because I was too young to seek out the less commercial ones. In the Nineties I saw the I Know What You Did Last Summers and the Scream movies and Final Destination, but that wasn’t a slasher movie. The ones that most resonate and that I remember most vividly are the Scream movies, and most of that is to the credit of Kevin Williamson, who wrote them. He really made those movies feel special and different.
DC: Are you looking to appear in more horror movies, or are you just taking these opportunities as they come?
PH: Oh, I would love to. The thing is… all of these low-budget movies, you’re doing them for fun. It’s not a big paycheck or any paycheck to be honest! So if I’m going to be doing something for fun, I want to make sure it’s something that I would genuinely consume and enjoy. The genre almost sells itself. Fans of horror, like myself, will see almost every horror movie released. I probably won’t see every one of them just because I have two kids now, so I’m seeing more animated movies than I am horror movies. I think the genre has such a passionate fanbase; I’d rather spend my time on a low-budget horror movie or a big-budget horror movie, if I’m so lucky, than spending my time on an indie drama that ten people might see.
DC: Would you like to be remembered as an entertainment blogger, an actor, or for your now legendary appearance on the Howard Stern show?
PH: I don’t care how I’m remembered. I don’t even care IF I’m remembered. I’m so many different things to so many different people. The only way I’d really love to be remembered is from my family, and that’s as an awesome dad and an awesome granddad, hopefully, if I’m a granddad.
DC: If you’re truly an awesome dad, you need to start showing some horror movies to them pretty soon.
PH: Oh well, you know, at least not until eight. At eight years old I totally will; I don’t care!
Most Likely to Die is in select theatres and on digital HD/On Demand today, May 13th. Also look for Perez in the upcoming horror film Wtf! that should be available sometime this summer.
Synopsis:
“Glee” star Heather Morris and “Celebrity Big Brother’” enfant terrible/showbiz gossip blogger Perez Hilton are part of a 10-year high school reunion hosted by a disgraced ice hockey player. Soon the party takes a deadly turn when one by one the former classmates, each with a secret shared history, turn up dead according to their senior yearbook superlatives. Who is the masked psycho with the razor-sharp mortarboard, and what exactly is his problem?
Categorized:News
