Director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV) looked outside of the box to cast Repo! The Genetic Opera, an R-rated rock opera set in 2056. In this not-so-distant future, organs fail at an alarming rate and GeneCo, a huge biotech firm specializing in organ transplants, comes to prominence. But GeneCo's clients better be prepared to make payments on time, otherwise the company's Repo Men will be unleashed to repossess the goods.
Paris Hilton plays Amber Sweet, the daughter of the CEO of GeneCo (played by Paul Sorvino), and a young woman addicted to surgery who's spending her father's money at an alarming rate. The role attracted a lot of attention, but director Bousman offered Hilton the part immediately after she auditioned. "Paris Hilton’s character, Amber Sweet, was a hard one because I needed someone who could sing, be sexual, very sexy, and yet be able to change her identity a lot. We met with a lot of actresses but we ended up going with Paris because she was the most prepared for the role, she was the most eager for the role, and I think there was a, there was a challenge for me as a director to take people away from Paris Hilton and put her for something else," said Bousman.
"It was such an honor to be offered a role like this because I usually get cast as the blonde airhead/blonde bombshell, and I think this time I was cast as something completely different than I ever would have thought," said Hilton at the film's Los Angeles press junket. "It was a lot of fun playing someone who looks nothing like me and playing someone who's so crazy. And the music is fantastic. It was such a fun film to do and we all became so close in our Repo family."
Repo! The Genetic Opera isn't the sort of project you'd immediately associate with Hilton. "I love Darren [Bousman] as a director. I'm a big fan of his Saw films. I love musicals and I thought this was different from every musical," explained Hilton when asked why she was so interested in playing Amber. "I just thought this was the perfect thing for me right now. I've really grown up a lot this year and I wanted to show people there's a lot more to me than they think."
"I've just been through a lot in the past year and I've really just grown up and became an adult. I think I was just living like a teenager, like, very carelessly for a long time, and now I realize I'm running a huge corporation, a huge empire. I thought this was something perfect to add to my brand, something very different."
Paris Hilton Analyzes Her Character
"Amber's sweet and she's a very tortured girl. I think the main thing is she wants attention from her father and he runs Gene Co, this huge corporation, they're very wealthy. You can have all the money in the world but you can still be unhappy, so she gets addicted to Zydrate, this futuristic drug as well as plastic surgery because she keeps on wanting to change her appearance to get the attention from her father, because the father is more paying attention to Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman) and to his business. So all of his children, I think, are just wanting to be loved and they’re trying to get it in the wrong ways," said Hilton.
Blondes, Body Image and Plastic Surgery
Unlike her character in Repo!, Hilton's never had any cosmetic surgery. "I'm way too scared. I hate needles, I hate blood, I hate thinking of just looking in the mirror and looking different every day," explained Hilton. "I don't have anything against it. A lot of my friends, [especially] living in Hollywood, basically all my friends have it. But it's something that I've chosen not to do because I like being all natural."Hilton hates needles and blood, but that doesn't keep her from being a horror movie fan. "I love watching it in a film, and especially when you're in the movie you realize that it's not real. But in real life, I wouldn't want to do it. But in a movie I love watching all the blood and the gore and the guts."
Hilton gets to change up her looks in Repo! The Genetic Opera, covering her blonde locks with different wigs. And when the filming ran late into the night, Hilton would occasionally wear the brunette wig back to the hotel. "I love being a blonde. It’s fun, but brunettes have fun too. And with Amber, she got to have red hair, black hair, blue hair… I was never a blonde; I never looked like myself. It was a lot of fun just to have a very different appearance."
Repo! - The Bottom Line
Hilton says audiences should check this one out because it's so different than the usual fare. "There are so many movies out right now which are the same thing," explained Hilton. "You know what's going to happen in the end. All the same storylines with different actors, and this movie is so unique and so different. We're already having screenings where people are coming dressed as the characters. They know all the words to the songs. It's already having a cult following already, and it's not even in theaters yet. It's an experience. It's something you have to see on the big screen. It's an event. It's like watching this amazing story.""It's not your typical opera at all," added Hilton. "It's completely different. It's based in the future and all the songs really have a story to it. Every word is not spoken, it's sung. And it's fun because there's all sorts of music in it. There's opera, there's industrial music, there's rock, there's pop, some rap… It has all different genres of music in the movie."
And Speaking of Music…
Hilton's still keeping busy with her own music and confirmed her next single, Jailhouse Baby, is inspired by Kylie Minogue. "Well, my whole album I was really inspired by Kylie Minogue. I love her, I love her music, and I wanted to do a dance album and I wrote every song on the album. I wrote Paris for President, which is on the website. Jailhouse Baby is on there as well. I just wrote it in my time in there," said Hilton, laughing.* * * * *
Repo! The Genetic Opera hits theaters on November 7, 2008 and is rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, language, some drug and sexual content.
