Actress and model Elizabeth Hurley takes center stage in her son Damian Hurley’s inaugural directorial project, “Strictly Confidential.”
In anticipation of the thriller’s digital premiere on Monday, May 13th, the mother-son duo recently appeared on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar to provide insight into the film.
Speaking about Damian directing his first movie, the Austin Powers star told Chris:
“My little boy has been filming me since he was about nine or 10 years old. I gave him his first camcorder, writing little sketches, which came to be little mini movies.
And just through the years, he’s sort of tortured everyone he knows to be in his movies. He ruined many family holidays, when I’d suddenly see an extra suitcase. I’m like, ‘What’s in that?’ He’d be like costumes and props. So we had to make another movie for him.
So he’s been doing it for so long that it just seemed actually like a natural progression to make a real film.”
As well as starring in the film, Elizabeth also served as a producer. Explaining how she helped behind the scenes, she said:
“Having worked with Damian for ten years in an unofficial capacity, I knew that he could control his set, and I knew he’d get the performances he wanted to get, I had no worries about that.
But I also knew, because he was so young and inexperienced, that the complications of making a movie, all the pre-production, the problems that happen during production and of course the horror of the post-production sometimes, I knew that he needed a lot of help with that. And we didn’t fight about any of that. He just knew.”
She continued:
“Scheduling, I can see it and I can know it. I know how much you can shoot in a day. And I know the contingencies you have to have. I know the weather cover you have to have.. I know what happens if the track breaks All that stuff, I know.
He, of course, didn’t know, so that I could be fully in charge of. But once we stepped onto the set and he was my boss, I didn’t have to do anything. He was the boss.”
Damian told Chris:
“I knew I’d be fine going into it with the actual parts of my job that were actually writing, actually directing, actually working with the actors, actually getting the shots.
I was unprepared for the mind-boggling logistical hell just thrown at you from every angle. It has nothing to do with your jobs.
The trucks haven’t turned up, there’s tornado warning, you’re being dived on by mosquitoes. You’re losing the light. You’ve got eight scenes today… and all of the above. And I’ve really learned that. That has now prepared me for the rest of my career.”
Speaking about working with her lad on the film, Elizabeth said:
“He wanted to learn on his feet, and he did. And we all know it’s better to be in the environment in which you want to work, learn with the best and try your hardest, and I think he really did that.
And he had full command of his set. He can now manage a crew, he got on incredibly well with his actors.
They’re all still his best friends. They will text each other every day. And so to me, he achieved what he needed to set out to achieve.”
And regarding the final outcome?
“This movie is very different to the next movie he’s going to make, which is I think it’s safe to say it’s more mature. It’s in a different ballpark,” she said.
“This is definitely a movie written by a young adult, starring young adults – obviously apart from me! – for young adults.
That’s what it was always intended to be. It’s a fun romp. It’s got some sad themes, he’s pulling on some sadness that he had to deal with when he was much too young to have to deal with that sort of sadness. And he’s brought some of those elements into it, but he wanted to make a fun entertainment for young people.”
