Elizabeth Hurley & Damian Hurley Discuss Their Collaboration in "Strictly Confidential"

[00:00:00] .

[00:00:05] Elizabeth Davion. Thank you all for joining me today on Prestae.

[00:00:12] Hi, thank you so much for having us. Exciting times. We have strict confidential. I watched

[00:00:18] it last night. I don't even know where to start with the whole movie. You know, we have

[00:00:20] mystery, murder, thriller characters you can't trust. That's the one of the first things

[00:00:25] I noticed throughout this film.

[00:00:27] Yeah, this has been such a labor of love. It's kind of it's surreal bizarre experience

[00:00:33] that people are now watching and seeing it and so far liking it. It's really exciting.

[00:00:39] So David, this question is first for you now. Director, directorial debut. What inspired

[00:00:44] you to get behind the seats? Not only writing it, but also being the director of this

[00:00:48] film.

[00:00:49] You know, I came up with this film. I was 17 after losing a very close friend to suicide.

[00:00:56] And it was just an idea. I was 17. I had no one to do with it. I wrote down, tucked away

[00:01:01] in a dusty drawer, the COVID hit, the world fell apart and then I made a short film after

[00:01:07] lockdown which a executive from Lionsgate saw and I got a call out of the blue and

[00:01:13] say, Hey, we've seen your short film. We love it. Do you have any other scripts?

[00:01:16] We'd love to talk about you writing a feature for us. Of course, I do and ran away and went

[00:01:22] through every script I'd ever had in my life, practically trying to find something. And I

[00:01:26] found this script and you know, a lot of it happened in the sort of three year interim

[00:01:30] between writing it and then but I rewrote it and strictly confidential with board.

[00:01:35] Amazing. Elizabeth, we see you as Lily in the movie. What drew you to this role

[00:01:40] and how did you prepare to play this character?

[00:01:44] I really liked the idea of Lily being a good person who has done bad things and

[00:01:52] through layers of self justification and saying what so many people say, you know,

[00:01:57] I didn't mean to hurt anyone. Finally has to acknowledge that she didn't mean to

[00:02:02] hurt anyone, but she did. And I really liked that feeling that she discovered by the end

[00:02:10] of the film that sometimes it's not enough to excuse your own behavior by saying I didn't

[00:02:16] mean to hurt anyone because actually we are responsible for hurting people and we've

[00:02:22] all done it in real life. And I liked her realizing that actually there is no free

[00:02:27] pass for anyone, but not special. We should be held up like everybody else and we have

[00:02:33] to what we do, what she did set in motion the entire story and she didn't mean to hurt

[00:02:40] anyone. But guess what? She did. And I liked the idea of trying to play her and not

[00:02:48] making her full of self pity and not making her aggressive, but trying to walk a line

[00:02:54] of which Damian wrote it was all there in the script. But as an actor, you just have

[00:02:58] to be careful. You don't go too heavy on either foot. I wanted her to find a way to navigate

[00:03:04] herself to the position where she could acknowledge she should have been better.

[00:03:10] David, when you were writing the script and you were writing the character, Lily, did

[00:03:13] you always think that your mother was going to play this role? Did you have an idea

[00:03:16] like she's going to nail it out of the park with us?

[00:03:19] She didn't know that part. No, I had absolutely no idea at all because funny

[00:03:23] enough when I wrote this part, it was a man's part. And so originally the husband

[00:03:28] and wife dynamic in the film, the wife was dead and we saw her only through

[00:03:32] flashbacks for you know, a couple of days work and husband was alive and a very

[00:03:36] important supporting part of the story. And I offered my mom at the time I said

[00:03:40] I'd be so thrilled if you come in just for a couple of days work and just

[00:03:43] play this cameo and beautiful flashback why I'm just gonna call it and then

[00:03:48] I decided to put genders and make the wife, the very important part and the

[00:03:53] husband dead. And then it just seemed really natural and obvious to the egg

[00:03:58] mom to come on board and it sat this part she sat down she read it. You know,

[00:04:01] it was obviously a very different film once that part of the changed. And

[00:04:05] thank God she loved it. And here we are.

[00:04:09] We've seen so many times a middle aged man behaving badly with someone

[00:04:16] younger. We've seen it. And maybe it's part of life how sad it is, maybe it

[00:04:22] is. But I think when Damon flipped the genders and it was the mother who was

[00:04:28] involved with one of her daughter's friends, it just turned it all on its

[00:04:32] head. And for me it made the story so much more interesting and so much

[00:04:36] more layered because we always have so many more preconceptions on how

[00:04:39] mothers should behave. And very often usually do put their kids first, but

[00:04:47] she didn't. And I found that very interesting.

[00:04:52] And it's only fair that you have your mom in the movie scene. She did give

[00:04:55] you the camcorder at eight years old when I saw yesterday the other interview

[00:04:58] did.

[00:05:00] Yes. Well, so following up in my very first film, I was eight, I drew up

[00:05:06] a little handwritten post in a contract begging my mom to say, you know, when

[00:05:10] I made my first real film, wouldn't you be an edge? Of course I will.

[00:05:13] You're cutting an eight year old me on the head.

[00:05:16] A little faster than she thought. But yeah, I gotta say it was a phenomenal

[00:05:20] experience. It was really seamless working together as a writer and

[00:05:24] director. What do you think was like the biggest challenge to overcome

[00:05:27] doing this project?

[00:05:29] You know, I was really startled by how many of the problems we have

[00:05:34] absolutely nothing to do with my actual job. They were nothing to do with

[00:05:38] anything creative. They were the physical hell through it. You know,

[00:05:42] trucks have turned up. We're being died from my mosquitoes. We're losing

[00:05:46] the light. We're about to run out of time. The there's a probable

[00:05:49] storm on the day we want to shoot a tranquil seat on the beach.

[00:05:51] You know, that sort of thing really I knew it was going to come.

[00:05:56] I didn't know quite what volume that my mother's experience was

[00:05:59] invaluable to help navigate and get through that.

[00:06:01] So the film is described, you know, like a central thriller with

[00:06:05] like a little devilish twists. Like, how did you tackle those

[00:06:09] things between both of you? You know, we'll start with you,

[00:06:10] Elizabeth first. How did you tackle those themes with your

[00:06:13] character?

[00:06:14] Well, I think David always said I want to make a sensual mystery

[00:06:19] with a pulse. And we always had that in our minds. We knew

[00:06:26] it wasn't a real out there thriller with people leaping out

[00:06:30] of cupboards and scaring you. Baddies chasing you in the night.

[00:06:34] I mean, it wasn't that film. But there is a real pulse of unease

[00:06:40] and despair in some places and confusion and betrayal. And all

[00:06:47] that is really something that Damien had told me that's what

[00:06:51] he wanted to explore. And it was interesting because you

[00:06:55] shoot a film, and then you go into the edit suite. And you

[00:06:58] know, Damien always footage. And there was certainly no chance

[00:07:02] or budget to any reshoot. So we said to him, you've got to get

[00:07:05] what you've got to get. And then you go make your film in the

[00:07:08] edit suite. And it was really fascinating to watch because

[00:07:14] there were some parts of the editor whilst assembling had

[00:07:17] absolutely no idea what to do with. He just had this random

[00:07:21] bits that he was like, I do not know where I don't know

[00:07:25] how I'm meant to please these what are they from saying

[00:07:28] trust me, trust me. So it was a day to sit down. And in fact, I

[00:07:32] think one of my favorite things in the movie is the montage

[00:07:34] right at the top where he just put together these fabulous

[00:07:38] things you know, I don't know what you're watching or why

[00:07:40] you're watching it, but you just get drawn in straight away

[00:07:42] to this beautiful world where you can tell something dark

[00:07:47] going on there, but you don't know what. And that's

[00:07:49] really the film I think they wanted to make where it looks

[00:07:52] beautiful. And just serene, gorgeous, but underneath this

[00:07:57] is pulsing belly of unpleasantness and unease and

[00:08:02] people behaving badly. And that's what we set out to do. And I

[00:08:06] think you did.

[00:08:07] Thank you. No, thank you. I couldn't I couldn't have said

[00:08:11] about myself. I think it's also I really when you're

[00:08:15] doing nonlinear film, people can have absolutely no idea

[00:08:19] what the hell you're doing on set. And they've got to

[00:08:20] have a lot of faith in you. And I just I'm so grateful

[00:08:22] everyone for having that faith in me. And finally, when I sat

[00:08:25] down, showed everyone the first time, because I believe they're

[00:08:27] like, Oh, it makes sense. Like a word come in the days where

[00:08:30] I would literally say things like mum be sitting and see

[00:08:33] you like, okay, quickly, people around shot here, just

[00:08:36] tell your head and shake your head. What trust me, please?

[00:08:40] And it's in the film and it works. But of course, on

[00:08:43] paper, it makes no sense until you see it all strung

[00:08:45] together.

[00:08:46] Amazing. Damien Elizabeth, I want to thank you for giving me

[00:08:49] a few minutes today. I'm Presti and good luck with the rest

[00:08:51] of the press for the film.

[00:08:53] Thank you so much for having us. Thank you.