November 14, 2022 • 27 mins
Paris is joined by Jameela Jamil and boy do they have a lot in common! From dogs, to DJ-ing, to not giving two Fs…this episode is a flawless diamond out-classed only by the woman power it conjures up.
Plus, Jameela tells a story of how her ‘fake it to you make it’ attitude led her to the mainstage at an Elton John party.
Trust us, you'll definitely want to be a part of this new friend group!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pretty This is Paris. Hey everyone, we're back with another
episode of This is Paris and welcome my guest Jimmie Lajamil. Hello,
(00:20):
thanks for having me. So it feels like you've had
every job on the Sun teacher, journalists, actor, activists, DJ
and what did you want to be when you're a child?
I listen Paris, all right, I'm South Asian a f
I wanted to be a doctor, just like every other
Indian that I grew up with. But I had to
(00:41):
leave school when I was seventeen because I had a
car accident and so it derailed all my studies and
after that I just couldn't. I was offered my scholarship
back once I'd recovered, and the idea of being nineteen
and going back to school with seventeen year olds just
felt intolerable, like you had a much shitter time even
than I did at school, and so it was just
(01:04):
non negotiable. So I just went out to the world
and just started working any job that I could without qualifications,
and then found my way into teaching. And while I
was a teacher and a model scout, I got discovered
in a pub while arguing with a man who turned
out to be a TV producer and then now I
have a TV career and I'm sitting here with you.
I love that's amazing story. So you grew up in London.
(01:27):
I did grow up in London and Spain and a
little bit Pakistan, but mostly mostly like Northwest London. I
love London. It's my favorite cities. London loves you. You
that you are one of our monarchs. Thank you. Yeah.
I lived there for six months and I just had
the time of my life. We had so much fun,
(01:48):
going to like China Way on Wednesdays and like Triumphs.
I'm like, oh, these are like clubs all the time.
It's just so fun. It's very iconic. You did. You
did London in the most like would comic possible way.
I haven't heard the word tramps in like ten years
and I haven't been there and over ten years probably,
(02:09):
But yeah, I love going back there. I was there
a few months ago and just like going to Heroads
and I don't know, walking around it's just so cute. Yeah.
M hmmm. So how did you get into acting? Just
from after a meeting with him? And he how do
you do on audition? No, No, that wasn't acting. That
was just TV presenting back when I was an interviewer
(02:29):
and you used to come on my show. I think
it was called T four on Channel four, remember you
used to it. That's I think that's where we actually met.
I think that that would have been one of the
places back in the day. I would have been twenty
two years old. But um, he discovered me to be
a TV host, and so I did one audition, I
did a follow up audition, and then within about ten
(02:50):
days of meeting with them for the first time, they
put me live on Channel four to be an interviewer
of celebrities and pop stars and pop culture icons like itself,
And so I did that for about four years. Then
I moved to radio because I was sick of being
told I only had a job in television because of
the way that I look. So I was like, if
they can't see me, they can't accuse me of that.
(03:11):
And then after a while, by the time I was
twenty eight, I started to feel like I was reaching
a ceiling. And in the United Kingdom, however much I
love them, we do not give women a fighting chance
to have long careers, and so I just thought, God,
I'm only twenty eight and I'm already being told it's
time to revamp my career to have a comeback. I
need to get the out of here. So I went
(03:32):
to America thinking I would just be a TV writer,
and I got signed by three arts as a writer
and a host, and a good place audition came up.
I was sure that I wouldn't get it because I've
never acted a day in my life, But for some reason,
m NBC and Mike sher are or a bunch of maniacs,
(03:53):
and they gave me a job as an actor. And
I had to three weeks later stand on set opposite
Ted King Danson and Chris and act out of nowhere.
I pulled that right out of my ass, like the
whole of my career. Really love that. I love that show.
Your character is amazing. She's like my favorite character on
the show. Thank you very much. I feel as though
(04:15):
she would have name dropped you. Yeah. I drew inspiration
from every socialite that I bet you hung out with
in London. That's where I pulled it all from. You know.
She was just a combination of those people, and it
was a kind of loving satire of that group. But
but that's where I had to find her from. And
(04:36):
that was a group that I used to DJ four
but I didn't ever hang out with because I was
way beneath them when it comes to the class system.
But they were They paid off in the end because
I was able to use them for my character. I
love it. You killed it with that. And how did
you get into djaying? I got into d jaying because
(04:58):
I was at a party. The DJ I'm sure you've
been at many of those. I was complaining about it
with a woman who turned out to be the event organizer.
She said, oh, you know, I'm I'm holding this event
next week for Elton John. Do you DJ? And in
a moment of panic and mania, I lied and said, yes,
(05:19):
yes I do. She was like, great, well, then next
week I'll see you Elson John's party. I think it
was held in like Selfages or something, and I DJ
for that party and so Elton did not look fully amused.
But I survived it enough to them think okay, you
know what, I could actually really learn how to do this,
(05:39):
and then I forged a tenure DJ career. Amazing. Was
it scary doing her first DJ gig for Alton? You
know what's upsetting about me is that the truth is
that I say things like yeah, but I felt nothing.
I feel nothing almost ever, and I don't really I
don't really feel nerves. I feel a kind of physical nerves,
but jen really, I have no shame in Paris. I
(06:01):
don't know what's wrong with me, but I just I
say yes and I do things that I like. I
find such a joy in the the possibility that I
could really screw up and embarrass myself, like I'm so
drawn to humiliation, which explained on Twitter. But I've never
found any of these things as intimidating as I should have,
(06:24):
given that I have no idea what I'm doing. I
treat like a failure and imposter syndrome, like a wedding
that I'm crashing. And you know, I treat all these
opportunities like a wedding that I'm crashing, and I'm just
in to get all the cake and the snacks and
the snugs that I can before someone figures out. But
I shouldn't be there, so not really, if I'm honest,
it's worrying, isn't it. No. I feel like you're lucky
(06:47):
that you don't have to care or think like that,
because it's it's annoying, a hard feeling when you're like
nervous or something, so did not feel that would be awesome. Yeah,
well it's it sort of comes from I think there
are two different ways you can feel very low self esteem,
and I think I feel low self esteem as and like,
I don't think I could get any lower. So for me,
I've got nothing to lose. I think that you are
(07:10):
gorgeous and brilliant and everything, so you're very kind of
feel so much. So what was your one of your
favorite DJ gigs? Oh? I used to there was a
radio station. I don't know if you ever went on
BBC Radio one, So I think playing on the main
stage there was really fun. But mostly I used to
(07:32):
do a thing. I doubt you ever did this because
you're much fancier and cooler than me. But I used
to do something called the Young Farmer's Ball. I with
DJ at the Young Farmer's Ball, And that's where farmers
don't really get a lot of nights out because on
Saturday morning and Sunday morning they're up like selling all
of their produce, and so there are these young Farmer's Balls,
which feels like New Year's ease for them where they
(07:53):
come out and they just have it and they live
it up to in a way that you've never seen
anyone party harder, thin, young English drunk farmers. And so
there would be all these themes, and one of them
was a Wears Waldo party where they were all dressed
as Wears Waldo and you just looked at these absolutely
wasted young farmers, all lost. No one could find their
(08:15):
friends because everybody looked identical. That's amazing. Eight thousand drunk farmers.
This is the best thing I've all dresses Wears Waldo.
It was the best thing I've ever seen. Oh my god,
that's so good, Like that's just that's a sight to see.
Did you take a video or photo of it? I'm
(08:36):
sure I did back then, but I didn't really have
social media, so unfortunately these photographs, I think there'll be
more farmers who are photographs of me than me of them, sadly. Okay, yeah,
I want to like find that online somewhere because that
sounds pretty funny. I'm sure you will. This is Parish.
(09:03):
So you have your new show on Disney Plus called
a Shehawk Attorney at Law on Disney Plus. How do
you like playing the villain Titania. Titania, Yeah, I love
playing the villain because I feel as though I'm too
much of a goody two shoes in real life. As
it is, it's quite fun to misbehave. And also women
like god knows you've got experience with this, but women
(09:25):
are so demonized anyway, no matter what we do, even
if we're not hurting anyone. Were demonized so much more
than men who actually do hurtful, harmful, deliberate, painful, scary,
atrocious things. And so it's quite fun to play someone
who doesn't give a who doesn't care, who isn't trying
to be approved of or believed or liked. She she
(09:46):
just lives authentically to herself, even if her authentic self
as a total monster, and so it was just liberating.
I wouldn't advise anyone being like Titania, but I but
I weirdly support her in that one area. I love
her style, Like alphits are amazing. How do you feel
about dressing Upala? I think she would. I think she
(10:08):
would die if Paris Hilton had complimented her style. I
think she'd be so thrilled. Um, I definitely feel like
some of the feathers and the diamonds were an homage
to you in the best possible way. We looked to
like all these great style icons of people who were
just like, unapologetically cute and and then obviously we took
it and exaggerated it and put it on steroids and
(10:30):
turned it into Titania. But I think your level of
like glamor wherever you are, it's something that was partially
what inspired me of of what I wanted this. I
just wanted this woman to be the only thing you
look at in a room, and so I think that's
what we did. And thanks for liking it. I love it.
I also love that the red hair on you. I
(10:51):
think it looks incredible. Would you ever think about changing
her hair color? Yeah? God, I just wanna. I would.
I would love to. I would love to. I think
I am. I think I'm desperate to get some hair
dye on me, but I'm afraid I've got this good
Indian hair and I don't want to. I don't want
to wreck it. But maybe it's wig season for me.
Have you ever done red hair? No, I'm too scared
(11:12):
to dye my hair, just especially with blonds. Like going
back and forth it's just so bad for your hair.
So I love wearing wigs. Also, I love your voice
just changed just then. I'm obsessed with your multiple voices.
That's great. But I yeah, I think I think you'd
(11:36):
look sick with a poison ivy vibe. Yeah, I've never
even dreamed will do it together one day and just
break the internet like it. So you said that you
do all of your own stunts, most of my own stants,
and most of my ownstance. How is that scary? It's
really scary. It's also just like the fear of being embarrassing,
(11:59):
I guess to the stunt coordinators, you know, like it's
it's like choreography, and I'm a terrible dancer. Uh. So
I didn't think I was going to make it through.
But the learning how to really fight, like properly fight.
Do you do any martial arts? No, No, that's that's fair,
but you have you can pay for your own security,
(12:20):
but but I can't yet. So to learn how to
do jiu jitsu and kickboxing and kung fu, all these
different things change the way that I feel in the world.
You know, women feel often so physically vulnerable for good
reason because traditionally men make this world quite unsafe for
us and each other, and so to be able to
(12:41):
learn how to actually fully protect my own body and
use someone else's weight against them has changed the way
that I feel in the world. Like I've become way
more confident, like too much, too confident, Like I I
feel like I could fight people that that would definitely
kill me, so I need to calm down. That's amazing, though,
(13:02):
because there is so many dangerous things happening in the
world right now, and it's such a scary place. So
it's good to have those skills. Yeah, And it gives
you a confidence that I think that we're deliberately kind
of denied of and denied when we're young. And I
feel like if I could, if I were president, I
would have all women from a small age, all little
girls learn how to fight, like really fight, kill someone
(13:23):
with their bare hands. M I don't think they should
use that, but I think just knowing that you can
changes the way that you feel. How long did you
have to dream to do that? Six months? Six months? Yeah,
I dislocated a bunch of stuff. I that a minor
fracture wasn't too serious and rolled my ankle many many times,
(13:44):
and that's what happens when you start doing stunts and
exercise for the first time in your life and you're
almost forty. But I came through it alive and I
feel like I did an okay jobs. So we'll see
nice looks hard, but I can end you for that. Also,
Megan's the Stallion has a rule on the show which
is iconic, and I heard that you helped her get it.
(14:06):
How did you get her on the show? I basically
just got down on one knee and proposed the idea
to Megan. She's such an icon and I knew that
we needed an explosive celebrity cameo. And there's just sort
of no one more relevant and more in the moment
right now than Megan mis Stallion. And I've worked with
her for years. I know she's amazing to work with.
I know she's super talented, and so I asked her.
(14:28):
She said yes. I pitched their name to Marvel. They
absolutely lost their ship and it was just a tworking
match made in heaven. One of the best things I've
I've ever seen was her well tworking with she help
And so if people feel like I've lowered the tone
of marvel, then you're king welcome. Was that always part
(14:50):
of the script or that did that just happen? That
was part of the script? It was, It was just
it was an absolute must have And thank god she's
such a fun, funny sport that she made it the
iconic moment that it now is. Yeah, she definitely is
like the Queen of working. What are those kneeds? They
(15:10):
are her superpower. Seriously, I can't squat for one second.
I have no idea how to do that. No, no,
oh my god, there's nothing sader than me trying. Nothing
sadder truly, this is Paris. So in two thousand eighteen,
(15:33):
you launched an Instagram account called I Way, and it
turned into a movement as a safe space for women
to love their bodies. Can you talk about how it
all started and how it feels to see what it's become? Yeah,
it was. It was actually a movement I started in
defense of the Kardashian family because I saw a picture
of all of them together and these are like business women.
(15:53):
There are a family of iconic empire, you know, moguls, right,
and so the numbers were written across their body, weren't
like how much money they've made, or how much they have,
how many awards they've want, or what they've innovated. It's
just their weight. And I was like, you'd never ever
ever see a group of men who are businessmen who
have broken all kinds of like historic records together with
(16:16):
their weight written across their bodies. There's just no evidence
of photographs like that of of famous men. And these
photographs exist of Taylor Swift or Selena Gomez, of you,
of me, of everyone, and we don't have any of
those for our male can't counterparts because we don't care
about what men weigh. We do care about how how
much space women take up in this world. And so
(16:37):
in defense of that photograph of them, I posted what
I weigh, which is not pounds or kilos. I weigh
my experiences. I weigh my contributions to society. I weigh
my my mistakes, my winds, my saddest and happiest moments,
my relationships, my orgasms. You know, I weigh the sum
of all of my parts. And when I posted that,
I had a very small following on Twitter, and it
(16:59):
went ridiculously viral and then stayed viral for weeks and
weeks and weeks. I started an Instagram account. I didn't
think it would last very long, and yet here I
am four years later, and we're a full global movement
with one and a half million community members, and we're
talking in Congress, and we're creating bills to protect young
people around body image and mental health. And now I
(17:22):
have a big podcast about mental health and body image,
and we are hoping to continue to make documentaries and
just be a safe space on the Internet for young
people where you don't have to feel where we're trying
to make you feel martyr and happier instead of thinner
and younger. I love that it's really inspirational and it's
definitely something that needs to be talked about because especially
(17:42):
all these young girls growing up like I wish I
had so much of the advice that I know today
and things that I'm hearing you say and other women
that I respect and look up to talk about. So
I think it's just amazing that you have made that
space for people to really come and learn and just
you know, realize so much about you know the world
and just how women are treated. Thank you. But also
(18:05):
I think the podcast has been quite necessary and that listen,
I'm ignorant and problematic, and I'm out of touch, and
these all things that I know about myself. And there
are multitude of reasons why, partially my privilege, but partially
the fact that left school at sixteen. I'm not educated,
I'm not very good at reading. I also was so
(18:25):
mentally ill most of my life that I haven't had
I've been trying to kill myself for such a long
time that I haven't had space in my brain to
really absorb what's happening in the world around me. So
you combine that with like fame and it Girl and
all the other stuff. I was just a whirlwind of
someone having too big a platform with not enough information
in their brain. So I recognize that I have an
(18:47):
opportunity here. Rather than pretend to be perfect or to
be silent and complicit, I'd like to learn publicly with everyone,
so that if people you know, we shame people for
what they don't know now, which is ridiculous because how
can you know it into you know it. Let's not
make people feel embarrassed for asking questions and trying to learn,
but we do with smug especially on the left. And
(19:07):
so I created a space where people could feel safe
to not know all the answers because I don't know
all the answers, and you can learn with me from
all these great experts and artists and people around the world,
you know, so we can all get better together because
I stuck, but I'm trying. What are some of the
topics that you guys discussed on your podcast? I mean
(19:30):
everything from feminism to loneliness, to toxic masculinity, to bipolar
to O c D. Like it's just such such a
wide um range of subjects of all the different things
of anti racism, of trans issues. Like, there's just so
many different things we have to learn about, and there
(19:50):
is a rush to update our information, and so this
to me felt like the most healing way to do it.
And we have such a great yes And obviously I
would die if you came on the podcasts. I would
love to thank you. Definitely. You were very outspoken. You
never hold back with your opinions and stand up for
what you believe in. Where does that confidence come from? UM,
(20:14):
I don't know if it's confident so much as I
don't really feel like I have a choice. You and
I are roughly the same age, and we grew up
in the same time of watching size zero and watching
actresses give really unhealthy interviews about how they're maintaining their weight,
and all of this just terrible misinformation, and it really
(20:36):
messed me up as a kid and made me really
sick and really um added to my issues with anorexia
that went on to live on in me for like
twenty years after the age of eleven when it started.
And so I just don't feel like I have a
choice to not do whatever I can to try to
interrupt that. Now, you know, I was. I was so
(20:57):
easily influenced by celebrities, and however much we can judge
people for that, celebrity has kind of overtaken religion. You were,
you were involved in that kind of like the rise
and the craze, and god knows what that did to you,
being one of the first people at the dawn of
social media era and TMZ's era to have people that
obsessed with you in such a suffocating way. But we
(21:17):
were obsessed with all celebrities, and so I'm aware of
the power and influence celebrities have, and so I'm just
trying to make this a slightly more wholesome place that
people think that I hate the Kardashian I don't hate
the Kardashians. I have no problem with them as people.
It's just when anyone there's no one who I think
is immune to being criticized if they're doing something or
(21:38):
selling something to people that that is unhealthy, and as
long as they're not, I have nothing to say. You know,
I'm in support of women doing better and growing and
making changes. But I think that's a common misunderstanding is
that people think I have some sort of personal issue
with any individual who participates in like selling diet culture.
I really don't. It's diet culture I have the problem with,
(22:00):
and so not to specify about them, but I'm just
saying that I think people misunderstand. I'm really just here
to try and get rid of the ship that packed
up my life so that doesn't mess up another generation
of twelve year olds. There's kind of being the voice
that you needed when you were a little girl. Yeah,
it could have been a could have been a voice
that was a little bit better expressing themselves. But hey, ho,
(22:22):
you know, we're figuring it out. So I have to
ask about your love life. You've been dating James Blake
for how long and what makes him the perfect partner.
Feel oh god, I feel like I've been dating James
for seven or eight years now, which is by mile
my Monger's relationship. What makes him the perfect partner for
(22:43):
me is that he's very smart and very funny and
also like able to tell me to off. So he's
just like, he's not afraid of me, and he understands
that my heart is in the right place, but sometimes
my yea, I my brain isn't always my best friend.
(23:04):
And so he's a good guide for me and someone
who can She's actually tall enough to take my phone
off me when I need that, um, and you know
he understands that. Look, listen, I don't have a very
good gauge of social cues. I never have. I was
a really weird kid because of that, and very lonely,
you know, for the first twenty years of my life,
(23:25):
because I'm not always great at reading the room and
reading people, and it makes me quite anxious, and so
sometimes I think that's partially why sometimes I blunder UM.
But he's very understanding of the way that I am,
and very kind and we're just best friends and we
love collaborating and everything, and it doesn't feel like I
(23:48):
it doesn't. You know, there's that that people talk about
one person should be the flower and one person should
be the gardener. I really don't believe in that. I
don't believe in two halves of people make one hole.
I believe that. I don't want to say two holes. Um,
that's hond really grows. I think the whole humans should
just come together in like a loving, respectful, equal union.
(24:10):
And I feel like that's what I have now. Maybe
he'll leave me. I don't know. Right now, it's going
really well. Where did you guys meet? We were both DJs,
uh and we met in the live land of BBC
Radio one, which is a very iconic place to first meet. Um.
And so we became friends for ages, because I take
(24:32):
at least three to six months to become friends with
someone before I would even consider kissing them, because I'm
very odd. And we became friends first, and then eventually
we fell in love and I moved out to Los
Angeles and he came out here to play a show
and said he would only stay five days. And it's
been eight years. So I don't know. It is her stalker.
(24:54):
I don't mind. I love it. Yeah, it's like my
husband and I were just best friends. And I think
that's the most important part, is just someone that you
can trust and tell anything to. Yeah, and someone who
can love you in spite of the parts of you
that you maybe don't love yourself. I think that's really
important and I'm so happy that you have that me
(25:16):
till finally. Yeah, I think it's nice when you find
love a little bit later in life, because I think
that it means that you really really know what you're
looking for. Yeah, James is everything. James was everything I
was lucky for, and more so I feel very lucky good.
You guys are so cute together. Thanks likewise, thank you
(25:38):
so much for joining us, Jamila, and be sure to
check out Jamila Being the Hardest Villain Ever on Cheehawk
Attorney at Last, streaming on Disney Plus, and you can
find Jamila's podcast I Wait with Jamala Jamiale on Earwolf
and congratulations on everything and keep doing it also, parasite honestly,
everything that you've been doing, especially in the last few years,
and it's so so moving and so inspire ring and
(26:01):
I think you're so you can brave and I can't
tell you how many people I know have been helped
by what you've you've done, and you didn't have to
do that, and you didn't have to put your name
to all of that. And I really appreciate you and
admire you for that, and thank you and yeah, I
support I support you always. Thank you, m thank you. Um. Well,
(26:23):
it's great to chat and maybe I will. I'll come
and hang out with you sometime. We'll get to you.
I would love that. Alright, gorgeous. I'll speak to you
soon and thank you so much, no worries. Bye. Thanks
for listening to This is Paris. You love hearing from you,
so leave us a review, Send an email to Paris
(26:45):
at i heeart radio dot com, leave a voicemail at
eight three three eighty seven Paris, and follow us at
This is Paris Podcast, Follow Paris at Paris Hilton, and
follow Hunter March hosted He's Nightly Bob at Hunter March
Pretty This is Paris. Hey everyone, we're back with another
episode of This is Paris and welcome my guest Jimmie Lajamil. Hello,
(00:20):
thanks for having me. So it feels like you've had
every job on the Sun teacher, journalists, actor, activists, DJ
and what did you want to be when you're a child?
I listen Paris, all right, I'm South Asian a f
I wanted to be a doctor, just like every other
Indian that I grew up with. But I had to
(00:41):
leave school when I was seventeen because I had a
car accident and so it derailed all my studies and
after that I just couldn't. I was offered my scholarship
back once I'd recovered, and the idea of being nineteen
and going back to school with seventeen year olds just
felt intolerable, like you had a much shitter time even
than I did at school, and so it was just
(01:04):
non negotiable. So I just went out to the world
and just started working any job that I could without qualifications,
and then found my way into teaching. And while I
was a teacher and a model scout, I got discovered
in a pub while arguing with a man who turned
out to be a TV producer and then now I
have a TV career and I'm sitting here with you.
I love that's amazing story. So you grew up in London.
(01:27):
I did grow up in London and Spain and a
little bit Pakistan, but mostly mostly like Northwest London. I
love London. It's my favorite cities. London loves you. You
that you are one of our monarchs. Thank you. Yeah.
I lived there for six months and I just had
the time of my life. We had so much fun,
(01:48):
going to like China Way on Wednesdays and like Triumphs.
I'm like, oh, these are like clubs all the time.
It's just so fun. It's very iconic. You did. You
did London in the most like would comic possible way.
I haven't heard the word tramps in like ten years
and I haven't been there and over ten years probably,
(02:09):
But yeah, I love going back there. I was there
a few months ago and just like going to Heroads
and I don't know, walking around it's just so cute. Yeah.
M hmmm. So how did you get into acting? Just
from after a meeting with him? And he how do
you do on audition? No, No, that wasn't acting. That
was just TV presenting back when I was an interviewer
(02:29):
and you used to come on my show. I think
it was called T four on Channel four, remember you
used to it. That's I think that's where we actually met.
I think that that would have been one of the
places back in the day. I would have been twenty
two years old. But um, he discovered me to be
a TV host, and so I did one audition, I
did a follow up audition, and then within about ten
(02:50):
days of meeting with them for the first time, they
put me live on Channel four to be an interviewer
of celebrities and pop stars and pop culture icons like itself,
And so I did that for about four years. Then
I moved to radio because I was sick of being
told I only had a job in television because of
the way that I look. So I was like, if
they can't see me, they can't accuse me of that.
(03:11):
And then after a while, by the time I was
twenty eight, I started to feel like I was reaching
a ceiling. And in the United Kingdom, however much I
love them, we do not give women a fighting chance
to have long careers, and so I just thought, God,
I'm only twenty eight and I'm already being told it's
time to revamp my career to have a comeback. I
need to get the out of here. So I went
(03:32):
to America thinking I would just be a TV writer,
and I got signed by three arts as a writer
and a host, and a good place audition came up.
I was sure that I wouldn't get it because I've
never acted a day in my life, But for some reason,
m NBC and Mike sher are or a bunch of maniacs,
(03:53):
and they gave me a job as an actor. And
I had to three weeks later stand on set opposite
Ted King Danson and Chris and act out of nowhere.
I pulled that right out of my ass, like the
whole of my career. Really love that. I love that show.
Your character is amazing. She's like my favorite character on
the show. Thank you very much. I feel as though
(04:15):
she would have name dropped you. Yeah. I drew inspiration
from every socialite that I bet you hung out with
in London. That's where I pulled it all from. You know.
She was just a combination of those people, and it
was a kind of loving satire of that group. But
but that's where I had to find her from. And
(04:36):
that was a group that I used to DJ four
but I didn't ever hang out with because I was
way beneath them when it comes to the class system.
But they were They paid off in the end because
I was able to use them for my character. I
love it. You killed it with that. And how did
you get into djaying? I got into d jaying because
(04:58):
I was at a party. The DJ I'm sure you've
been at many of those. I was complaining about it
with a woman who turned out to be the event organizer.
She said, oh, you know, I'm I'm holding this event
next week for Elton John. Do you DJ? And in
a moment of panic and mania, I lied and said, yes,
(05:19):
yes I do. She was like, great, well, then next
week I'll see you Elson John's party. I think it
was held in like Selfages or something, and I DJ
for that party and so Elton did not look fully amused.
But I survived it enough to them think okay, you
know what, I could actually really learn how to do this,
(05:39):
and then I forged a tenure DJ career. Amazing. Was
it scary doing her first DJ gig for Alton? You
know what's upsetting about me is that the truth is
that I say things like yeah, but I felt nothing.
I feel nothing almost ever, and I don't really I
don't really feel nerves. I feel a kind of physical nerves,
but jen really, I have no shame in Paris. I
(06:01):
don't know what's wrong with me, but I just I
say yes and I do things that I like. I
find such a joy in the the possibility that I
could really screw up and embarrass myself, like I'm so
drawn to humiliation, which explained on Twitter. But I've never
found any of these things as intimidating as I should have,
(06:24):
given that I have no idea what I'm doing. I
treat like a failure and imposter syndrome, like a wedding
that I'm crashing. And you know, I treat all these
opportunities like a wedding that I'm crashing, and I'm just
in to get all the cake and the snacks and
the snugs that I can before someone figures out. But
I shouldn't be there, so not really, if I'm honest,
it's worrying, isn't it. No. I feel like you're lucky
(06:47):
that you don't have to care or think like that,
because it's it's annoying, a hard feeling when you're like
nervous or something, so did not feel that would be awesome. Yeah,
well it's it sort of comes from I think there
are two different ways you can feel very low self esteem,
and I think I feel low self esteem as and like,
I don't think I could get any lower. So for me,
I've got nothing to lose. I think that you are
(07:10):
gorgeous and brilliant and everything, so you're very kind of
feel so much. So what was your one of your
favorite DJ gigs? Oh? I used to there was a
radio station. I don't know if you ever went on
BBC Radio one, So I think playing on the main
stage there was really fun. But mostly I used to
(07:32):
do a thing. I doubt you ever did this because
you're much fancier and cooler than me. But I used
to do something called the Young Farmer's Ball. I with
DJ at the Young Farmer's Ball, And that's where farmers
don't really get a lot of nights out because on
Saturday morning and Sunday morning they're up like selling all
of their produce, and so there are these young Farmer's Balls,
which feels like New Year's ease for them where they
(07:53):
come out and they just have it and they live
it up to in a way that you've never seen
anyone party harder, thin, young English drunk farmers. And so
there would be all these themes, and one of them
was a Wears Waldo party where they were all dressed
as Wears Waldo and you just looked at these absolutely
wasted young farmers, all lost. No one could find their
(08:15):
friends because everybody looked identical. That's amazing. Eight thousand drunk farmers.
This is the best thing I've all dresses Wears Waldo.
It was the best thing I've ever seen. Oh my god,
that's so good, Like that's just that's a sight to see.
Did you take a video or photo of it? I'm
(08:36):
sure I did back then, but I didn't really have
social media, so unfortunately these photographs, I think there'll be
more farmers who are photographs of me than me of them, sadly. Okay, yeah,
I want to like find that online somewhere because that
sounds pretty funny. I'm sure you will. This is Parish.
(09:03):
So you have your new show on Disney Plus called
a Shehawk Attorney at Law on Disney Plus. How do
you like playing the villain Titania. Titania, Yeah, I love
playing the villain because I feel as though I'm too
much of a goody two shoes in real life. As
it is, it's quite fun to misbehave. And also women
like god knows you've got experience with this, but women
(09:25):
are so demonized anyway, no matter what we do, even
if we're not hurting anyone. Were demonized so much more
than men who actually do hurtful, harmful, deliberate, painful, scary,
atrocious things. And so it's quite fun to play someone
who doesn't give a who doesn't care, who isn't trying
to be approved of or believed or liked. She she
(09:46):
just lives authentically to herself, even if her authentic self
as a total monster, and so it was just liberating.
I wouldn't advise anyone being like Titania, but I but
I weirdly support her in that one area. I love
her style, Like alphits are amazing. How do you feel
about dressing Upala? I think she would. I think she
(10:08):
would die if Paris Hilton had complimented her style. I
think she'd be so thrilled. Um, I definitely feel like
some of the feathers and the diamonds were an homage
to you in the best possible way. We looked to
like all these great style icons of people who were
just like, unapologetically cute and and then obviously we took
it and exaggerated it and put it on steroids and
(10:30):
turned it into Titania. But I think your level of
like glamor wherever you are, it's something that was partially
what inspired me of of what I wanted this. I
just wanted this woman to be the only thing you
look at in a room, and so I think that's
what we did. And thanks for liking it. I love it.
I also love that the red hair on you. I
(10:51):
think it looks incredible. Would you ever think about changing
her hair color? Yeah? God, I just wanna. I would.
I would love to. I would love to. I think
I am. I think I'm desperate to get some hair
dye on me, but I'm afraid I've got this good
Indian hair and I don't want to. I don't want
to wreck it. But maybe it's wig season for me.
Have you ever done red hair? No, I'm too scared
(11:12):
to dye my hair, just especially with blonds. Like going
back and forth it's just so bad for your hair.
So I love wearing wigs. Also, I love your voice
just changed just then. I'm obsessed with your multiple voices.
That's great. But I yeah, I think I think you'd
(11:36):
look sick with a poison ivy vibe. Yeah, I've never
even dreamed will do it together one day and just
break the internet like it. So you said that you
do all of your own stunts, most of my own stants,
and most of my ownstance. How is that scary? It's
really scary. It's also just like the fear of being embarrassing,
(11:59):
I guess to the stunt coordinators, you know, like it's
it's like choreography, and I'm a terrible dancer. Uh. So
I didn't think I was going to make it through.
But the learning how to really fight, like properly fight.
Do you do any martial arts? No, No, that's that's fair,
but you have you can pay for your own security,
(12:20):
but but I can't yet. So to learn how to
do jiu jitsu and kickboxing and kung fu, all these
different things change the way that I feel in the world.
You know, women feel often so physically vulnerable for good
reason because traditionally men make this world quite unsafe for
us and each other, and so to be able to
(12:41):
learn how to actually fully protect my own body and
use someone else's weight against them has changed the way
that I feel in the world. Like I've become way
more confident, like too much, too confident, Like I I
feel like I could fight people that that would definitely
kill me, so I need to calm down. That's amazing, though,
(13:02):
because there is so many dangerous things happening in the
world right now, and it's such a scary place. So
it's good to have those skills. Yeah, And it gives
you a confidence that I think that we're deliberately kind
of denied of and denied when we're young. And I
feel like if I could, if I were president, I
would have all women from a small age, all little
girls learn how to fight, like really fight, kill someone
(13:23):
with their bare hands. M I don't think they should
use that, but I think just knowing that you can
changes the way that you feel. How long did you
have to dream to do that? Six months? Six months? Yeah,
I dislocated a bunch of stuff. I that a minor
fracture wasn't too serious and rolled my ankle many many times,
(13:44):
and that's what happens when you start doing stunts and
exercise for the first time in your life and you're
almost forty. But I came through it alive and I
feel like I did an okay jobs. So we'll see
nice looks hard, but I can end you for that. Also,
Megan's the Stallion has a rule on the show which
is iconic, and I heard that you helped her get it.
(14:06):
How did you get her on the show? I basically
just got down on one knee and proposed the idea
to Megan. She's such an icon and I knew that
we needed an explosive celebrity cameo. And there's just sort
of no one more relevant and more in the moment
right now than Megan mis Stallion. And I've worked with
her for years. I know she's amazing to work with.
I know she's super talented, and so I asked her.
(14:28):
She said yes. I pitched their name to Marvel. They
absolutely lost their ship and it was just a tworking
match made in heaven. One of the best things I've
I've ever seen was her well tworking with she help
And so if people feel like I've lowered the tone
of marvel, then you're king welcome. Was that always part
(14:50):
of the script or that did that just happen? That
was part of the script? It was, It was just
it was an absolute must have And thank god she's
such a fun, funny sport that she made it the
iconic moment that it now is. Yeah, she definitely is
like the Queen of working. What are those kneeds? They
(15:10):
are her superpower. Seriously, I can't squat for one second.
I have no idea how to do that. No, no,
oh my god, there's nothing sader than me trying. Nothing
sadder truly, this is Paris. So in two thousand eighteen,
(15:33):
you launched an Instagram account called I Way, and it
turned into a movement as a safe space for women
to love their bodies. Can you talk about how it
all started and how it feels to see what it's become? Yeah,
it was. It was actually a movement I started in
defense of the Kardashian family because I saw a picture
of all of them together and these are like business women.
(15:53):
There are a family of iconic empire, you know, moguls, right,
and so the numbers were written across their body, weren't
like how much money they've made, or how much they have,
how many awards they've want, or what they've innovated. It's
just their weight. And I was like, you'd never ever
ever see a group of men who are businessmen who
have broken all kinds of like historic records together with
(16:16):
their weight written across their bodies. There's just no evidence
of photographs like that of of famous men. And these
photographs exist of Taylor Swift or Selena Gomez, of you,
of me, of everyone, and we don't have any of
those for our male can't counterparts because we don't care
about what men weigh. We do care about how how
much space women take up in this world. And so
(16:37):
in defense of that photograph of them, I posted what
I weigh, which is not pounds or kilos. I weigh
my experiences. I weigh my contributions to society. I weigh
my my mistakes, my winds, my saddest and happiest moments,
my relationships, my orgasms. You know, I weigh the sum
of all of my parts. And when I posted that,
I had a very small following on Twitter, and it
(16:59):
went ridiculously viral and then stayed viral for weeks and
weeks and weeks. I started an Instagram account. I didn't
think it would last very long, and yet here I
am four years later, and we're a full global movement
with one and a half million community members, and we're
talking in Congress, and we're creating bills to protect young
people around body image and mental health. And now I
(17:22):
have a big podcast about mental health and body image,
and we are hoping to continue to make documentaries and
just be a safe space on the Internet for young
people where you don't have to feel where we're trying
to make you feel martyr and happier instead of thinner
and younger. I love that it's really inspirational and it's
definitely something that needs to be talked about because especially
(17:42):
all these young girls growing up like I wish I
had so much of the advice that I know today
and things that I'm hearing you say and other women
that I respect and look up to talk about. So
I think it's just amazing that you have made that
space for people to really come and learn and just
you know, realize so much about you know the world
and just how women are treated. Thank you. But also
(18:05):
I think the podcast has been quite necessary and that listen,
I'm ignorant and problematic, and I'm out of touch, and
these all things that I know about myself. And there
are multitude of reasons why, partially my privilege, but partially
the fact that left school at sixteen. I'm not educated,
I'm not very good at reading. I also was so
(18:25):
mentally ill most of my life that I haven't had
I've been trying to kill myself for such a long
time that I haven't had space in my brain to
really absorb what's happening in the world around me. So
you combine that with like fame and it Girl and
all the other stuff. I was just a whirlwind of
someone having too big a platform with not enough information
in their brain. So I recognize that I have an
(18:47):
opportunity here. Rather than pretend to be perfect or to
be silent and complicit, I'd like to learn publicly with everyone,
so that if people you know, we shame people for
what they don't know now, which is ridiculous because how
can you know it into you know it. Let's not
make people feel embarrassed for asking questions and trying to learn,
but we do with smug especially on the left. And
(19:07):
so I created a space where people could feel safe
to not know all the answers because I don't know
all the answers, and you can learn with me from
all these great experts and artists and people around the world,
you know, so we can all get better together because
I stuck, but I'm trying. What are some of the
topics that you guys discussed on your podcast? I mean
(19:30):
everything from feminism to loneliness, to toxic masculinity, to bipolar
to O c D. Like it's just such such a
wide um range of subjects of all the different things
of anti racism, of trans issues. Like, there's just so
many different things we have to learn about, and there
(19:50):
is a rush to update our information, and so this
to me felt like the most healing way to do it.
And we have such a great yes And obviously I
would die if you came on the podcasts. I would
love to thank you. Definitely. You were very outspoken. You
never hold back with your opinions and stand up for
what you believe in. Where does that confidence come from? UM,
(20:14):
I don't know if it's confident so much as I
don't really feel like I have a choice. You and
I are roughly the same age, and we grew up
in the same time of watching size zero and watching
actresses give really unhealthy interviews about how they're maintaining their weight,
and all of this just terrible misinformation, and it really
(20:36):
messed me up as a kid and made me really
sick and really um added to my issues with anorexia
that went on to live on in me for like
twenty years after the age of eleven when it started.
And so I just don't feel like I have a
choice to not do whatever I can to try to
interrupt that. Now, you know, I was. I was so
(20:57):
easily influenced by celebrities, and however much we can judge
people for that, celebrity has kind of overtaken religion. You were,
you were involved in that kind of like the rise
and the craze, and god knows what that did to you,
being one of the first people at the dawn of
social media era and TMZ's era to have people that
obsessed with you in such a suffocating way. But we
(21:17):
were obsessed with all celebrities, and so I'm aware of
the power and influence celebrities have, and so I'm just
trying to make this a slightly more wholesome place that
people think that I hate the Kardashian I don't hate
the Kardashians. I have no problem with them as people.
It's just when anyone there's no one who I think
is immune to being criticized if they're doing something or
(21:38):
selling something to people that that is unhealthy, and as
long as they're not, I have nothing to say. You know,
I'm in support of women doing better and growing and
making changes. But I think that's a common misunderstanding is
that people think I have some sort of personal issue
with any individual who participates in like selling diet culture.
I really don't. It's diet culture I have the problem with,
(22:00):
and so not to specify about them, but I'm just
saying that I think people misunderstand. I'm really just here
to try and get rid of the ship that packed
up my life so that doesn't mess up another generation
of twelve year olds. There's kind of being the voice
that you needed when you were a little girl. Yeah,
it could have been a could have been a voice
that was a little bit better expressing themselves. But hey, ho,
(22:22):
you know, we're figuring it out. So I have to
ask about your love life. You've been dating James Blake
for how long and what makes him the perfect partner.
Feel oh god, I feel like I've been dating James
for seven or eight years now, which is by mile
my Monger's relationship. What makes him the perfect partner for
(22:43):
me is that he's very smart and very funny and
also like able to tell me to off. So he's
just like, he's not afraid of me, and he understands
that my heart is in the right place, but sometimes
my yea, I my brain isn't always my best friend.
(23:04):
And so he's a good guide for me and someone
who can She's actually tall enough to take my phone
off me when I need that, um, and you know
he understands that. Look, listen, I don't have a very
good gauge of social cues. I never have. I was
a really weird kid because of that, and very lonely,
you know, for the first twenty years of my life,
(23:25):
because I'm not always great at reading the room and
reading people, and it makes me quite anxious, and so
sometimes I think that's partially why sometimes I blunder UM.
But he's very understanding of the way that I am,
and very kind and we're just best friends and we
love collaborating and everything, and it doesn't feel like I
(23:48):
it doesn't. You know, there's that that people talk about
one person should be the flower and one person should
be the gardener. I really don't believe in that. I
don't believe in two halves of people make one hole.
I believe that. I don't want to say two holes. Um,
that's hond really grows. I think the whole humans should
just come together in like a loving, respectful, equal union.
(24:10):
And I feel like that's what I have now. Maybe
he'll leave me. I don't know. Right now, it's going
really well. Where did you guys meet? We were both DJs,
uh and we met in the live land of BBC
Radio one, which is a very iconic place to first meet. Um.
And so we became friends for ages, because I take
(24:32):
at least three to six months to become friends with
someone before I would even consider kissing them, because I'm
very odd. And we became friends first, and then eventually
we fell in love and I moved out to Los
Angeles and he came out here to play a show
and said he would only stay five days. And it's
been eight years. So I don't know. It is her stalker.
(24:54):
I don't mind. I love it. Yeah, it's like my
husband and I were just best friends. And I think
that's the most important part, is just someone that you
can trust and tell anything to. Yeah, and someone who
can love you in spite of the parts of you
that you maybe don't love yourself. I think that's really
important and I'm so happy that you have that me
(25:16):
till finally. Yeah, I think it's nice when you find
love a little bit later in life, because I think
that it means that you really really know what you're
looking for. Yeah, James is everything. James was everything I
was lucky for, and more so I feel very lucky good.
You guys are so cute together. Thanks likewise, thank you
(25:38):
so much for joining us, Jamila, and be sure to
check out Jamila Being the Hardest Villain Ever on Cheehawk
Attorney at Last, streaming on Disney Plus, and you can
find Jamila's podcast I Wait with Jamala Jamiale on Earwolf
and congratulations on everything and keep doing it also, parasite honestly,
everything that you've been doing, especially in the last few years,
and it's so so moving and so inspire ring and
(26:01):
I think you're so you can brave and I can't
tell you how many people I know have been helped
by what you've you've done, and you didn't have to
do that, and you didn't have to put your name
to all of that. And I really appreciate you and
admire you for that, and thank you and yeah, I
support I support you always. Thank you, m thank you. Um. Well,
(26:23):
it's great to chat and maybe I will. I'll come
and hang out with you sometime. We'll get to you.
I would love that. Alright, gorgeous. I'll speak to you
soon and thank you so much, no worries. Bye. Thanks
for listening to This is Paris. You love hearing from you,
so leave us a review, Send an email to Paris
(26:45):
at i heeart radio dot com, leave a voicemail at
eight three three eighty seven Paris, and follow us at
This is Paris Podcast, Follow Paris at Paris Hilton, and
follow Hunter March hosted He's Nightly Bob at Hunter March
Host
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