Elizabeth and her son, Damian, dish on working alongside each other for the upcoming film 'Strictly Confidential.'
Elizabeth Hurley and her son, Damian Hurley, are "Spilling the E-Tea" about the risqué scenes in the upcoming film, Strictly Confidential.
In the thriller, which is Damian's directorial debut, Elizabeth plays a grieving mother, Lily, who brings her late daughter, Rebecca's, friends together as they all mourn her death. However, as the grieving group -- including Rebecca's best friend, Mia -- try to come to terms with what they believe was a suicide, they uncover something more sinister.
"I first came up with this idea when I was 17 after I lost a very close friend of mine to suicide, which was a really devastating time," Damian tells his mother of the film's inspiration. "It was the first loss that me and most of my friends had ever known and the world fell apart and COVID happened and that idea got tucked into a little drawer. I made a short film over lockdown, which one of the head executives at Lionsgate saw and I got a call out of the blue saying that they wanted me to write and direct a feature for them, which is insane to hear."
Damian reveals that the death of his biological father, Steve Bing, by suicide and the death of Elizabeth's ex-fiancé, Shane Warne, also added a layer of grief to the project and pushed him to pick it back up.
"In the interim, since I first came up with the idea, I'd lost my biological father to suicide, your former fiancé and my former stepfather had also died and I'd gone through quite a lot of loss, quite a lot of grief and I'd really grown up," he says. "I just suddenly found that old idea stashed away in a drawer that I'd come up with when I was 17, and I thought I could make something with this. So I sat down, started to write and Strictly Confidential was born."
When it was time to cast the role of the matriarch, Damian knew to call his mother, because she made him a promise that would be hard for her to pass up.
"You were my first choice," Damian shares with his mother about casting her in the film. "You made me a promise when I was eight years old and I was making my little short films, running around with a camcorder and torturing every lone suffering family member or friend I could get my hands on. You promised me that if I ever made a real movie, you would be in it and so I thought I'd call you on your promise, and you delivered."
As for Elizabeth, she knew how important it would be for her to make good on her word for her son, especially with a project that was so close to him.
"I promised you that I'd be in your first film, so I was always gonna be in it anyway," she tells Damian. "But I think you gave me a lot to do in this. I was always a supporting character. Your leads in Strictly Confidential also are 25 and under, but this was the best part that could've come from somebody of my age who's a generation older than the kids in the film. I had great things to do and I wasn't just doing mommy stuff. I had a great part, so you really pulled it off in that one."
Elizabeth's character isn't wearing aprons and making apple pies, though. Instead, she engages in some very hot and heavy scenes with one of Rebecca's friends. While the world has been abuzz about the idea of Damian directing his mother in some rather compromising positions, the young director admits there was no time to find the moment cringe -- he had a movie to finish!
"We just didn't have time," he says about being put off by the scenes. "Shooting an independent film, every second counts, every minute matters. All that’s going on in your mind is, 'Oh my god, how are we gonna make the day? We're losing the light. There are mosquitos dive bombing, cicadas ruining all the sound takes.' I think that scene was one of seven we shot that day. It was the last thing on my mind. We just had to get the scene, make it beautiful, and get on to the next 12 scenes that day."
Elizabeth, 58, shares that she had no problem shooting the rather "provocative" scene, as it made sense.
"What goes on between me and the actress, which people are making a fuss about, was so integral to the story," she says. "It was important. There’s nothing gratuitous. I guess it's just for me. I've just been myself, I can't help it if people view it that way."
While Elizabeth didn't really have a problem with the content, she did have to tap out of "mommy mode" while her son was busy working.
"My favorite part of having you as my director was feeling very safe in your hands knowing that I could trust you," she tells Damian. "When a performance was right and just to help out in anything that I, you know, actors always need help with. My least favorite part was probably not being able to tell you off as I normally would as a mom, like, 'Elbows off the table, drink more water, eat slowly.' Those sort of things. I had to control myself."
Damian, 21, credits having a first-hand look alongside his mother on the set of Gossip Girl for his interest in getting behind the camera.
"I think it was on the set of Gossip Girl which was the first set that you took me on properly, when I was about eight, and I remember it was such a beautiful atmosphere for a young creative to grow up in," he shares. "I had snuck into the editing suite to watch all the editors assemble things. I ran lines with everyone. The directors let me call action and cut."
Another famous actress also gave a young Damian a shot when it came to helping her on screen.
"The wonderful Blake Lively, who played Serena [van der Woodsen] always let me run her lines with her. I knew all her lines perfectly. I'd shout them out whenever anybody got them wrong and it was an amazing experience to grow up on. It sparked my creativity," he recalls.
For Elizabeth, Damian has it all figured out from the director's chair, but in order to suggest one thing, she has to go back into mommy mode.
"You've got it down for the directing," she tells Damian. "Being in the editing suite, you got all that bit down. I think I would go back to mommy stuff and say you have to look after yourself during pre-production and production. You have to eat. I am being Mommy, but I’m actually also being sensible. You have to eat properly, and really take care of yourself."
Strictly Confidential is in theaters, on digital and on demand April 5.
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