{"id":2263748,"date":"2026-02-02T23:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2263748"},"modified":"2026-02-02T23:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:02:44","slug":"spencer-pratt-will-still-play-the-villain-for-the-right-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/spencer-pratt-will-still-play-the-villain-for-the-right-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Pratt Will Still Play the Villain\u2014for the Right Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Twenty years after The Hills premiered on MTV, Spencer Pratt is back in the headlines.\u00a0But this time, he insists\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0not\u00a0the bad guy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his new book, The Guy You Love to Hate: Confessions\u00a0from\u00a0a Reality TV Villain, Pratt details how he turned being\u00a0despised\u00a0into a career and explains why you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0trust everything you see on TV. He also outlines his decision to take on his latest role, Los Angeles mayoral candidate, in the wake of the devastating 2025 Palisades wildfire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back when\u00a0he joined The Hills in its second season, Pratt\u00a0was\u00a0determined to stir\u00a0up\u00a0conflict\u00a0and\u00a0agitate castmates. The show, which was a spin-off of Laguna Beach, centered around Lauren Conrad and her friends as they navigated life in L.A. while Natasha Bedingfield\u2019s \u201cUnwritten\u201d played over shots of sunsets and the Hollywood sign. Now, Pratt is hoping to make a new name for himself in his hometown by running for mayor to challenge the status quo with a platform <\/a>aimed at accountability, emergency readiness and a treatment-first approach to ending homelessness. Earlier this month, Pratt announced his run<\/a> on the one-year anniversary of losing his home in the Pacific Palisades fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of every single thing you\u2019ve ever acquired, whether\u00a0it’s\u00a0a photo, a memento, anything you bought, just wiped away in one day, it\u2019s\u00a0a real reset,\u201d he\u00a0told Newsweek in an interview.<\/p>\n

When he started digging into how the fire started and what made it so destructive, something\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0adding up, in his eyes. He turned his frustration into advocacy and began posting on social media about\u00a0what\u00a0he believes to be years of mismanagement from city and state officials.\u00a0Pratt is running against incumbent Karen Bass, whose approval rating hangs in the low 40s, according to CalMatters.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times recently called <\/a>the Palisades fire “a defining issue” in the mayoral race. Pratt\u00a0writes in his book that\u00a0his candidacy is\u00a0more than a political campaign;\u00a0it’s\u00a0a mission to expose a failed system and \u201cshed light on the darkest corners of L.A. politics.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“<\/strong>The reason why I ever wanted to be famous is because L.A. was a dream, Hollywood was a dream. I grew up in that,\u201d he\u00a0said, adding that the L.A. of his youth was a \u201cutopia.”<\/p>\n

“I got my little bubble, but they burned my bubble down, so now I have to fight for all of L.A.,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I was a better Angelino, I would have been doing this a long time ago, but I obviously wanted to be a simple entertainer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to The Hills, Pratt and his wife, The Hills co-star Heidi Montag, appeared on several other reality TV shows, like Celebrity Big Brother UK and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. For most of the early 2000s, the couple, known as Speidi, dominated tabloids with reports of blowups with castmates, relationship drama and near-fatal plastic surgeries. <\/p>\n

Pratt told Newsweek that when he originally entered the spotlight, he was intent on crafting\u00a0a TV persona that was inspired by the bad boyfriends in ’80s movies with a little bit of Robert De Niro in Heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0didn’t\u00a0know you could just exist on a show. I thought you had to make drama,\u201d he said. \u201cI went in with mercenary energy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pratt grew up in the Pacific Palisades\u00a0and\u00a0attended the University of Southern California to study business, with aspirations of becoming an investment banker.\u00a0But\u00a0after receiving his first D in a class,\u00a0he realized he wasn’t suited for a life of drudging through Excel\u00a0spreadsheets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In the early 2000s,\u00a0reality\u00a0TV\u00a0shows\u00a0like The Real World,\u00a0Big\u00a0Brother\u00a0and\u00a0Survivor\u00a0were captivating audiences by\u00a0depicting how strangers interact when they are forced\u00a0into\u00a0uncomfortable circumstances. Beyond competition shows, there was a new subsection of the genre\u00a0emerging,\u00a0focused\u00a0on the personal lives of the rich and famous.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inspired\u00a0by\u00a0The\u00a0Osbournes,\u00a0Pratt\u00a0pitched MTV\u00a0executives\u00a0on a show about his\u00a0best friend, Brody Jenner, and\u00a0his family\u00a0called The Princes of Malibu.\u00a0But\u00a0the show\u00a0only lasted one season, forcing Pratt back to USC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“<\/strong>I was just supposed to be rich and famous, I have my own network television show, Target and McDonald’s were my sponsors, and now\u00a0I’m\u00a0back in class,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One day, while watching the first season of The Hills, Pratt noticed his former showrunner\u2019s name in the credits. Pratt immediately called him and demanded that he get on the cast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018That\u2019s my show, you\u00a0get my camera ready,\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the villain\u00a0and love interest to Montag, Pratt\u00a0became a chaos agent on the show that\u00a0stirred\u00a0conversations and drove viewership.\u00a0In fact, in his book, Pratt says that MTV Executive Vice President Tony DiSanto told him that he and\u00a0Montag\u00a0saved the show from cancellation early on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with that\u00a0attention\u00a0came a pressure to perform\u00a0that pushed Pratt to his limits in the name of making good TV.\u00a0Throughout\u00a0his book, Pratt details several instances when\u00a0the\u00a0scenes\u00a0audiences saw onscreen\u00a0were\u00a0not entirely real\u2014including some of his most iconic blowups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pratt said viewers just had to\u00a0check\u00a0the\u00a0show’s\u00a0credits to\u00a0see how many\u00a0story producers and script writers worked on each episode.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was pretty obvious, but I learned the hard way people take [the show] very seriously,\u201d he told Newsweek.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Pratt, several scenes were scripted, heavily directed,\u00a0pushed\u00a0to exaggeration by producers or dubbed over in an ADR booth weeks after filming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0something\u00a0he\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0expect was\u00a0the \u201cFrankenbiting,\u201d a term for when editors splice together\u00a0different\u00a0pieces of\u00a0dialogue\u00a0over\u00a0unrelated\u00a0shots to create a situation that\u00a0often looks worse\u00a0than the reality.<\/p>\n

For example, Pratt said there was a scene where he was on the phone with\u00a0Montag,\u00a0but it was edited to look like he was saying those things to another castmate,\u00a0Audrina\u00a0Patridge,\u00a0which\u00a0creates\u00a0an entirely different context that\u00a0he said, “makes it look so crazy.” <\/p>\n

Even if people hated him on the show, he said fans still stopped him at restaurants asking for a picture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith my ego, I know these people hate me and are texting their friend like, \u2018oh\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0the worst,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0a monster,\u2019 but I still love taking\u00a0the photos,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

His\u00a0\u201cI made it\u201d moments came when his face was next to movie stars in tabloids and\u00a0when a car of teenage girls yelled at him while he was outside a cafe in the Palisades.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one negative was such a pump-up because to have people recognize you driving by and yell out the window, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m\u00a0Eminem now,\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the weight of\u00a0always\u00a0being\u00a0the bad guy started to take a toll on Pratt.\u00a0If\u00a0he\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0<\/strong>play\u00a0his part,\u00a0Pratt said producers threatened to edit him out of episodes, which meant he\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0get paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He told Newsweek that at the beginning of each season, there would be a discussion with producers\u00a0about\u00a0redemption arcs that never came.\u00a0Pratt\u00a0eventually\u00a0learned that he\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0a collaborator or co-producer;\u00a0he was, as he sees it, just another exploited talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his book, Pratt says by season six of The Hills, it felt like producers were pushing him and Montag to their limits to get more fights, more meltdowns and “more bridges burned.” He remembers one producer he called “the Collector” because “it felt like her job was to dismantle us psychologically, piece by piece, until she collected the shot.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought\u00a0I was the puppet master when I was just getting played as a puppet,\u201d he told Newsweek. \u201cIt just always felt so dirty. That\u2019s\u00a0why my character became more method because now [I] hate production.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0despicable. You start looking at them as monsters trying to make you look bad.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pratt said he was \u201cblessed with the old media world\u201d at the height of his fame, with no comment sections to doomscroll through. But he said he still internalized and projected the negativity he received outside the show.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toward the end of his book, Pratt notes that \u201cthe culture finally caught up\u201d with The Hills\u00a0cast\u00a0as\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0being\u00a0reevaluated by a new audience as\u00a0pioneers of\u00a0the \u201cinternet-age celebrity economy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s age, when social media influencers are reality stars and reality stars are social media influencers, it is rare to find true authenticity on screen. Contestants on Love Island or The Bachelor face allegations of not being there “for the right reasons.” Even if they don’t make it to the final rose ceremony, they still leave the show with a surge in Instagram followers and brand deals with Pepsi. And your favorite “get ready with me” creator on TikTok? They are now suddenly doing their makeup routine with exclusively L’Oreal products. <\/p>\n

The short-lived reboot of only ran for two seasons on MTV from 2019 to 2021. At the time, Pratt had earned a newfound likability with his audience on Snapchat, where he featured hummingbird sanctuaries and his business selling crystals. Pratt was optimistic about the reboot after seeing the success of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. But he wrote in his book that The Hills: New Beginnings felt like a “toxic family reunion.” In addition to COVID-19 interrupting production, Pratt said the show could never last with a cast that was too guarded and image-conscious.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I\u00a0think the problem now\u00a0is image crafting,\u201d he said. \u201cSomebody goes on a reality\u00a0show,\u00a0they’re\u00a0in their head trying to do an [Instagram] story and what filters are they putting it on, what lenses, metaphorically speaking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Whether\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0on TV or social media, Pratt insists he’s being authentic, adding that he\u00a0can be\u00a0real because “that’s who I’ve always been\u2014thankful to be a little more famous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0recommend chasing fame on reality TV these days, noting that\u00a0there\u2019s little money in it.\u00a0If anyone wants to pursue it, he recommends trying to have fun, “and keep your day job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked if\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0back a return to reality TV on a show like\u00a0The Traitors,\u00a0Pratt said\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0rather\u00a0use TikTok. That way, he can make more money and\u00a0\u201cnot risk being edited in a bad way.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would\u00a0have never\u00a0become a villain on reality TV if it pays what it pays now,\u201d he said. \u201cI said no to both seasons of House of Villains because I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0identify as a villain anymore. And\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0not paying me enough to jump back\u00a0into\u00a0that role.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But then\u00a0he quickly backtracked. \u201cBut, again, if anybody knows the producers, I will. If you find the right budget.”<\/p>\n

If any producers from Peacock are reading, Pratt said he is available, but \u201cwe\u00a0have to\u00a0do it quick though,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0about to be mayor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

So\u00a0what makes \u201cthe guy you love to hate\u201d the right\u00a0choice\u00a0to lead Los Angeles?\u00a0Pratt said he \u201cwould much\u00a0rather not be\u00a0doing any of this,\u201d but he feels a higher calling to advocate for his\u00a0community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think I\u00a0operate\u00a0on rage,\u00a0which I do have a ton of rage, but I also channel that emotion of pain and hurt that people are not feeling acknowledged and were just left to burn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And if he\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0win the\u00a0mayoral race, Pratt said\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0not stopping his mission to expose government inefficiencies in the city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u00a0don\u2019t win mayor,\u00a0I’m\u00a0not stopping,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople say [I\u2019m] just doing this for the book, that the storyline ends when this book tour ends.\u00a0And when\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0still doing this same journey five years from now,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0gonna\u00a0look stupid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newsweek.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty years after The Hills premiered on MTV, Spencer Pratt is back in the headlines.\u00a0But this time, he insists\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0not\u00a0the bad guy.\u00a0\u00a0 In his new book, The Guy You Love to Hate: Confessions\u00a0from\u00a0a Reality TV Villain, Pratt details how he turned being\u00a0despised\u00a0into a career and explains why you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0trust everything you see on TV. He also outlines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2263749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[21741,366201,307878,24122,43174,411184,21913],"class_list":["post-2263748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-entertainment","tag-heidi-montag","tag-mtv","tag-reality-tv","tag-spencer-pratt","tag-the-hills","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Spencer-Pratt-Will-Still-Play-the-Villain\u2014for-the-Right-Price.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2263750,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263748\/revisions\/2263750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}