Damian Hurley has revealed his famous mother Elizabeth nearly got arrested in Switzerland during the making of one of his short films.
The actor, 22, recalled the shocking time Elizabeth, 58, nearly got put in bars when he made her chase his godfather Hugh Grant, 63, around Zurich Airport with a fake dagger.
Reflecting on his short-lived career in the film industry with Tatler, Damian said it was his ‘finest moment’ so far.
He said: ‘When my mother gave me my first camcorder for my eighth birthday, a despot was born. From that moment, all I wanted was to write and direct movies.
‘I tortured every friend and family member I could get my hands on to act in my self-written, self-directed short films, and I dragged whole suitcases of props, lights and costumes on every vacation.
Damian Hurley, 22, has revealed his famous mother Elizabeth, 58, nearly got arrested in Switzerland during the making of one of his short films
The actor recalled the shocking time Elizabeth nearly got put in bars when he made her chase his godfather Hugh Grant , 63, around Zurich Airport with a fake dagger
‘My finest moment was nearly getting my mother arrested en route to St Moritz, when I made her chase my long-suffering godfather Hugh Grant around Zurich airport with a fake dagger, bellowing that she was going to skin him alive.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Damian the reasoning behind the heartbreaking storyline in his debut film Strictly Confidential.
In his new film, a young woman drowns near her family home in the Caribbean, and her loved ones struggle to come to terms with the tragedy.
The idea for the film’s plot came to the model, actor and filmmaker in the aftermath of losing a friend to suicide, as well as his biological father Steven Bing.
Speaking on the inspiration, Damian told the publication : ‘Finally, I unearthed a treatment I’d written when I was 17 in the aftermath of losing a close friend to suicide.
‘At the time I’d shelved it, deciding I wasn’t yet ready to tell the story, but in the three-year interim I’d lost a parent, also to suicide, and had been forced to grow up fast.
‘I realised I now had the experience to bring the script to life, and Strictly Confidential was born: the story of a young woman who is haunted by the suicide of her best friend and determined to find answers.’
Elizabeth conceived her only child during a short-lived relationship with Steve not long after she split from Hugh Grant in 2000.
Reflecting on his short-lived career in the film industry with Tatler , Damian said it was his ‘finest moment’ so far
He said: ‘When my mother gave me my first camcorder for my eighth birthday, a despot was born. From that moment, all I wanted was to write and direct movies. I tortured every friend and family member I could get my hands on to act in my self-written, self-directed short films’
He added: ‘My finest moment was nearly getting my mother arrested en route to St Moritz, when I made her chase my long-suffering godfather Hugh Grant around Zurich airport with a fake dagger, bellowing that she was going to skin him alive’
She gave birth to Damian in 2002 but the businessman contested paternity, claiming that they had been in a non-exclusive relationship at the time.
Although a DNA test proved that Bing was Damian’s father, he did not become part of his life and they are thought to have never even met. Bing died in 2020 when he jumped from the 27th floor of his Los Angeles apartment building.
Screen star Elizabeth and her son Damian have found themselves under fire after he directed her racy lesbian sex scene in his upcoming film Strictly Confidential.
Elizabeth raised eyebrows for her steamy scene with another woman in the raunchy trailer for her upcoming film Strictly Confidential; which was directed by her son Damian.
But the star insists it wasn’t just a ‘titillating’ moment but an important part of the plot of the movie.
In Damian’s directorial debut, Elizabeth plays a mother called Lily who welcomes her daughter’s friends to her Caribbean estate the year after the mysterious deaths of her daughter and her husband.
A number of secrets become known during the trip, including Lily’s love affair with her daughter’s female friend.
Of the steamy sex scene between the pair, which was directed by her real-life son Damian, Elizabeth told TooFab : ‘Well, it was a very important part of storytelling, when Mia, our protagonist, is on this quest to find out why her best friend [Elizabeth’s character’s daughter] killed herself.
Elsewhere in the interview, Damian the reasoning behind the heartbreaking storyline in his debut film Strictly Confidential
Elizabeth conceived her only child during a short-lived relationship with Steve (pictured) not long after she split from Hugh Grant in 2000
Speaking on the inspiration, Damian told Tatler : ‘Finally, I unearthed a treatment I’d written when I was 17 in the aftermath of losing a close friend to suicide.’
Although a DNA test proved that Bing was Damian’s father, he did not become part of his life and they are thought to have never even met. Bing died in 2020 when he jumped from the 27th floor of his Los Angeles apartment building
See the full feature in the June issue of Tatler available via digital download and on newsstands from Thursday May 2
‘It was so integral to [the storytelling] that the actual physical filming of it wasn’t even something we talked about really.
‘We just knew that the impact it would have on the story and the rest was just our job.’
She insists the scene is not simply included for shock value, adding she always stays away from movies that have salacious moments to stun the audience.
The screen star said: ‘For me, when I get a script, if I feel something is put in gratuitously — which has nothing to do with storytelling — right from when I was a beginner, I’d be like, “I don’t get that, I don’t understand that, that’s not something I want to be part of.”
‘It’s just thrown in, in my head, by some male executive somewhere and I’ve never been part of that.
‘I would not have been on this, but it wasn’t. It was so integral. It was part of the storytelling, it wasn’t just a sex scene thrown in for titillation.’
Strictly Confidential was released in cinemas and on Prime Video on April 5 in the US and will be released on May 13 on UK digital platforms.
