‘He’s stepped up and taken it in his stride’
◆ Elizabeth Hurley joins son Damian to talk to Rachael Davis about his directorial debut Strictly Confidential, in which she stars as a grieving mother
For his directorial debut, Damian Hurley – son of Austin Powers actress Elizabeth Hurley – has taken on quite the challenge.
He’s written and directed Strictly Confidential, a seductive thriller about a haunted young woman who tries to uncover the mystery of her best friend’s suicide, only to find herself drawn into a world of sex, lies and betrayal – a story that was inspired by his own experience of losing a close friend to suicide.
“I came up with the idea for this when I was 17, after some friends of mine and I had gone through an immense amount of loss: We’d lost a very close friend to suicide,” explains the 22-year-old.
While dealing with the loss, Damian says he crafted the story of Strictly Confidential – a sensual mystery-thriller which follows Mia, played by Georgia Lock, as she tries to understand the death of her best friend Rebecca, played by Hollyoaks’ Lauren Mcqueen.
Damian’s mother Elizabeth Hurley, 58, the actress and model known for playing Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery and the Devil in 2000’s Bedazzled, plays Rebecca’s grieving mother Lily.
We meet her a year after Rebecca’s death, when she invites Mia and her group of friends to her island home in the Caribbean to mark the anniversary of her daughter’s suicide.
However, once she arrives, Mia begins to suspect that there’s more to Rebecca’s death than meets the eye: a web of sex, lies and duplicity involving every member of the group, and even Rebecca’s own mother.
“I’m incredibly proud of him for making Strictly Confidential,” says Elizabeth of Damian’s first foray into filmmaking.
“In some ways, when you’re making a small independent movie, it is a baptism by fire coming into the movie industry. You have to work so fast, and be so prepared, all of which he was…
“He’s just really stepped up and taken it all in his stride. He cares very passionately, and I really feel that shows. It’s his first movie – there’s many more to come,” she adds.
Working with family on a hectic film set is often said to be challenging, and Damian took things a step further by casting his mother in a rather seductive role, one which involves a few hot and heavy scenes between Lily and one of her late daughter’s female friends.
Where some might feel awkward directing their parent, particularly in this sort of role, Damian says
“it was a great experience” working with Elizabeth.
“Funnily enough, it felt like a natural progression,” he says.
“I got my first camcorder when I was eight, and since then, I’ve been torturing every long-suffering family member and friend I could get my hands on to act in my despotically directed films. And, of course, my mum was in nearly all of them, very loyally, very kindly, over the years, so we’re very familiar and comfortable working together.”
Damian adds that he enjoyed the shorthand he naturally had with his mother, and how easily they were able to communicate
– a benefit he says is unique to working with family, particularly those as wellversed in the film industry as Elizabeth.
“People are very hesitant to work with family; I love it, I think I only want to work with family from now on… We have a shorthand with family where you don’t have to be quite so delicate and polite to each other… So I loved working together.”
Strictly Confidential, while being a slow burn thriller, is stunning to watch: “One of Damian’s intentions,” Elizabeth says, “was to have beautiful people in a beautiful place, doing bad things.
“A dark underbelly is what he wanted to explore,” she adds.
“And I feel people will respond very well to that. They may settle down and think they’re watching a movie set in paradise, and then realise that there are a lot of serpents lurking beneath the surface – and I hope people go along for the ride.
“We really see this movie as more of a mystery than a thriller,” she muses.
“I love watching people uncover secrets and lies.
“This movie was written by Damian when he was incredibly young, a young adult. He wanted to write a movie about young adults. And apart from me, everybody in it is a young adult. So it’s a mystery, really, aimed at that age group.
“This movie is about friendship, and loyalty, and betrayals, and: how important are your friendships to you? And I think that was something that we really enjoyed exploring.”
The Hurleys emphasise that there’s a duality to Strictly Confidential: it’s a film set in a stunning location and featuring gorgeous characters, but the story delves into the dark reaches of friendships, relationships, betrayals and love affairs.
“I hope that people can identify with Mia, identify that when you lose someone you love, you always want answers,” says Elizabeth.
“Sometimes in real life, you can never get any, but Mia does get her answers in the end, and they’re not fuzzy and warm. They’re tough answers to get.
“I think people have been responding very well to that,” she adds.
“Wondering what they’d do in that position. And it’s raising a lot of dialogue.
“That’s what we like.”