Spencer Pratt (and Heidi) Reveal What You DIDN'T See On 'The Hills: New Beginnings' Premiere
Almost a decade after we waved goodbye to the cast of The Hills, they’re back on our TV screen, releasing their inhibitions (thanks, tequila and white wine) and stirring up drama like no other reality cast can.
But a lot has changed: Spencer and Heidi have a kid, Audrina’s a divorced single mom, Brody Jenner is married to Kaitlynn Carter, and things are getting a little too real. Brandon Lee (Tommy and Pamela’s son) and The O.C. OG Mischa Barton have joined the cast. Stephanie Pratt’s trying (and maybe failing) to reconnect with her brother and be a better person. Whitney Port…still exists!
A lot happened on the premiere episode, so we talked to reality royalty-and reality STANS-Spencer (and Heidi) to get their take on who’s real, who's fake, and which relationships are doomed to be over by the time the sun sets on this season.
On what it’s like to be back on The Hills over a decade later.
Spencer: I need more airtime. I have too many emotions, I still hold so much against these people for how they let Heidi take the fall last time. But I’m also working so hard to keep this cast on top of the charts [editor's note: what charts?]. This was my dream. I went on eight other reality shows to try to get The Hills back.
I’ve got so much to say to these people. There’s so much unfinished business. I’ve got some skeletons to shake out with every person in this cast. Except Heidi and Gunner. They’re perfect.
On reuniting with the cast:
Heidi and I were so isolated by production and former “stars” during the show’s first run. I never got to interact with these people. To me, they’re all strangers-but strangers that I know talk mad shit about me. So here I am, hope you can say it to my face.
The only one who’s not a stranger is Mischa, because I watched all of The O.C. and loved the part where she drove off a cliff.
I’m really hoping she brings more of that TMZ energy to this show. It can’t be all eating fruit and hummus on the beach. Let me tell you-whoa, spoiler alert-the first time I shot a scene with Mischa, we were having dinner and she wouldn’t drink any white wine. They kept asking and she’s all “No, no, I don’t drink.” Second those cameras were down, home girl downs three glasses like it’s a competition.
I'm like, “Okay, we’ve got a star potential.” There’s something cooking there.
On whether he’ll be friends with Mischa Barton:
I don't think we'll be enemies. We'll see if she starts talking shit in testimonials. I think that's where she's gonna pop off and release all that sideways shade we haven't seen yet. I'm hoping she gets more comfortable and becomes a fly-on-the-wall shit talker. I can respect that.
On why he wants to be famous again so badly:
I was never supposed to not be famous. I worked too hard to be unplugged.
The other night, we roll into this restaurant in NYC, and we try to get a table. It's completely packed and they say, “Oh, there's no tables.” Then, a different hostess walks up as she sees us leaving and she recognizes us and goes, “Are you guys being helped?” We told her that there’s no tables. Boom. Next thing you know, I got the best booth in a sold-out restaurant.
Those are the moments when I realize you can have all the money in the world and it won’t get you anywhere. I could have been a billionaire and that first server still would have dissed me ’cause there was no room. But just the little bit of clout we had got us a status table without reservations. Until you’ve experienced that, you really don’t know what you’re missing. And then you never want to give that up.
On whether he believes #Speidi will last forever:
I thought so, but now Heidi’s mad I just said “forever” and left out that we’ll also be together in heaven. Forever’s not good enough. It’s an eternity for us, pal.
On reuniting with Audrina:
Spencer: As much as Heidi loves Audrina, every time I look at her, I still see her standing next to LC going, “You know what you did! You’re brainwashed, Heidi!” Heidi says we would have done the same thing if our jobs were on the line, but I’m still working on moving past that. I always carry a crystal when we film together. Heidi says, “We needed her to come back,” but she’s in pageant mode right now.
Heidi: I love Audrina!
Spencer: There are only three people Heidi loves. Gunner, me, and Jesus.
On Audrina’s ex:
Man, if we get Audrina’s ex-husband on season two, it’s just going to be insane. That guy went off the deep end on social media when he saw she was filming. He kept tagging me in pictures saying “Audrina is disgusting to be hanging out with Heidi and Spencer.”
It’s funny that he loved filming when he was on the show, but now that no one wants him around, it’s suddenly “an embarrassment?” Come on, player. He’s Brody’s friend…so that should tell you everything you need to know.
From what I read on TMZ, he’s the world's worst ex. It made me feel sorry for Audrina. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to light her up all season though.
On his beef with Brody’s wife Kaitlynn:
When Brody first started dating Kaitlynn, I was friends with him, and he was telling me that he was just starting filming for the Kardashians. I was telling him he needed to get all over that show. This was it: He was back in the game.
Kim tagged him in a couple of posts and he jumped from 100,000 followers to about three million real quick. And then he's like, “Can you believe this? Kim and Kanye invited me to their wedding, but they didn't give me a plus-one. And I want to bring Kaitlynn!”
But he’d only been dating Kaitlynn for a year. Brody dates lots of girls for a year. Kaitlynn made such a big deal about it that Brody didn’t go to the wedding and publicly made statements about how they didn't give him a plus one. Kaitlynn for sure thought if they played hard to get, Kim would give in.
But no one’s entitled to a plus-one! And Kim even said, “We can’t invite some of our closest friends,” so why is she going to invite your new girlfriend? Kaitlynn’s the reason that Brody had a falling out with Kim.
I’m not going to say she’s a clout chaser, but she had 95 followers before she started dating Brody. Then she became an “influencer.” And she made it a point to never invite me, an actual influencer, to her parties.
Heidi: She just thinks she's better than me and everybody else. She thinks she’s like this influencer in Brody's life-which means nothing. She has her own agenda. I'm not the only one who thinks that. Audrina thinks that. A lot of other people too. Kaitlynn’s never been Team Brody. She’s always been Team Kaitlynn.
On Spencer's relationship with his sister, Stephanie:
I don’t want to give her any more material for the podcasts. I don’t need her jumping into my google alerts. Heidi and I are taking a page out of the LC book of friendship and icing her out until she can be a better person.
On Brody and Kaitlynn’s fight.
I’m the supposed villain of this show, and I wouldn’t have ever called Heidi a nightmare or a psychopath. That would be impossible. She could never be one of those things. But what you saw in that little snippet-that was after the actual fight, by the way, the cameras got there too late for the yelling-is one billion percent what Kaitlynn is like.
I’ve never heard Brody call Kristin Cavallari a psychopath or a nightmare on television. And I pretty much lived with them. He never called Jayde Nicole that. He never called Avril Lavigne a monster once.
Avril accidentally showed up at a club that we were filming at and saw Kaitlynn and Brody and just ran out and I thought, This is the show. I ran into Avril at the valet (had to make curfew) and she was really nice to me. I told her I liked her new song-not the one about the devil or whatever. The one that was popping in August.
On whether Brody and Kaitlynn will last:
I go back and forth. She's done such a good job interior decorating his whole place and I feel like she literally, no pun intended, built her way into his life. She's kind of made herself indispensable. His house looks really nice, if you like that aesthetic. It's a little too IG for me.
On Audrina and Justin Bobby’s date:
Audrina and Justin Bobby had some crazy chemistry. What was all that talk about Justin Bobby doing things to Audrina her husband never did? I wanna know who’s baby that is. How do we know it’s not Justin’s Baby? Let’s get a DNA testing kit for the reunion. Get a whole lab in there for a dramatic reveal.
There’s a Justin that would be great for Audrina. I'm not sure he's ready to be that Justin yet.
On Brandon Lee joining the cast:
Brandon is exactly what we needed, and we need more of his life. He's really out here falling in love and having his heart broken on TV, and I live for that. He's the real Bachelor. He’s everything that “Unwritten” song is about. I’d watch him even if I weren’t on this show.
On why he went to Stephanie’s party:
It was a lose-lose. If I didn't go, I was bound to run into her, and then she's going to put on her fake English accent and cry, “You didn't show up to my party!!!” I just wanted to pull off the Band-aid and get it over with.
I knew we were going to take the L when she accosted us, but I got to go out and have drinks with Heidi. So it wasn’t a completely awful night. We had a lot of fun before Stephanie came for us.
Heidi on the “reality” of reality TV:
Heidi: Most people are here to reinvent their image. Some of what you see is what you get, but a lot of it is a facade. Hopefully, the season will expose people and really show more of who they are. It's challenging when people aren't being real and everyone’s fighting for that Iron Throne. Everyone wants that crown. Not me.
I feel like Spencer and I had a price on our head coming into this. Everyone thought like, “Oh, if I fight with Heidi and Spencer, I’ll get the most exposure and the most press.” Were they wrong? No. But I just wish people would be more authentic, like they are when the cameras aren’t rolling.
On what Spencer and Heidi hope to prove with their comeback:
Heidi: Nothing. I don't need to change anyone's mind. I'm just here to experience this chapter of my life with my friends.
The Hills is part of our legacy and our lives and our love story. I love reality TV and I love being part of it. I love entertainment. I love filming. I love having our son be a part of it. For us, it was more fun than anything else. We don’t have anything to prove.
Spencer: I want that damn Iron Throne!
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