Elizabeth Hurley and your son, Damian Hurleyare “Spilling the E-Tea” about the steamy scenes from the upcoming film, Strictly confidential.
In the thriller, which is Damian’s directorial debut, Elizabeth plays a grieving mother, Lily, who brings together the friends of her late daughter, Rebecca, 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 discover something more sinister.
“I first came up with this idea when I was 17, after losing a very close friend 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 this idea was kept in a little drawer. I made a short film about lockdown, which one of the chief executives at Lionsgate saw and I got a call out of the blue saying they wanted me to write and direct a film for them, which is crazy 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 sadness to the project and led him to resume it.
“In the meantime, since I had the idea, I lost my biological father to suicide, his ex-fiance and my ex-stepfather also died and I have experienced a lot of loss, a lot of loss. sadness and I really grew up,” he says. “Suddenly I discovered this old idea sitting in a drawer that I had when I was 17 and I thought I could do something with it. So I sat down, started writing and Strictly confidential he was born.”
When it came time to cast the role of the matriarch, Damian knew he had to call his mother, as she made him a promise that would be difficult for her to pass up.
“You were my first choice,” Damian tells 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, walking around with a video camera and torturing every long-suffering family member or friend I could find. You promised me that if I made one real movie, you would be in it and so I thought I’d call you to make good on your promise, and you did.”
As for Elizabeth, she knew how important it would be for her to keep her word to her son, especially with a project that was so close to her heart.
“I promised you I would be in your first movie, so I would always 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. Strictly confidential I’m also 25 or younger, but this was the best part that could have come from someone my age, who is a generation older than the kids in the movie. I had great things to do and I wasn’t just doing mom stuff. I had a great role, so you really did well in it.”
Elizabeth’s character isn’t wearing aprons and baking apple pies. Instead, she gets involved in some very hot and heavy scenes with one of Rebecca’s friends. Although the world is abuzz with the idea of Damian directing his mother in some pretty compromising positions, the young director admits there was no time to feel the cringe moment – he had a film to finish!
“We just didn’t have time,” he says of being put off by the scenes. “Making an independent film, every second counts, every minute matters. All that goes through your mind is, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to make the day? We’re losing the light. There’s mosquitoes bombarding us, cicadas ruining every shot. sound. I think that scene was one of seven we shot that day. It was the last thing on my mind. We just had to take the scene, make it look good, and move on to the next 12 scenes that day.”
Elizabeth, 58, says she had no problem filming the somewhat “provocative” scene, as it made sense.
“What happens between me and the actress, and what causes so much fuss, was fundamental to the story,” she says. “It was important. There’s nothing gratuitous about it. I think it’s just for me. I’ve just been myself, I can’t help it if people see things that way.”
Although Elizabeth didn’t really have a problem with the content, she had to get out of “mommy mode” while her son was busy working.
“My favorite part of having you as my director was feeling so safe in your hands, knowing I could trust you,” she tells Damian. “When a performance was right and just to help with anything I, you know, the actors always need help with. My least favorite part was probably not being able to scold you like I normally would as a mom, like, “Elbows off the table, drink more water, eat slowly.” This kind of thing. I had to control myself.
Damian, 21, credits seeing firsthand 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 where you properly accepted me, when I was about eight, and I remember it being such a beautiful atmosphere for a young creative to grow up in,” he says. “I snuck into the editing suite to watch all the editors put things together. I talked to everyone. The directors let me step in and cut.”
Another famous actress also gave young Damian a chance when it came to helping her on screen.
“The wonderful Blake Lively, who played Serena (van der Woodsen), always let me say her lines with her. on. This sparked my creativity,” he recalls.
For Elizabeth, Damian has it all figured out in the director’s chair, but to suggest one thing, she needs to go back into mommy mode.
“You already know everything about directing,” she tells Damian. “Being in the editing room, you calmed down. I think I would go back to the mommy stuff and say you have to take care of yourself during pre-production and production. You have to eat. I’m being mommy, but I actually I’m also being sensible. You have to eat right and really take care of yourself.
Strictly confidential will be in theaters, digitally and on demand on April 5th.
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