CLOSE BOND
‘I get why people say Damian filming my steamy scenes is weird but being a single mum makes you close’, says Liz Hurley
Liz also opened up about Damian taking her bikini pictures
MANY kids find watching a sex scene with parents to be an excruciating experience - but Elizabeth Hurley’s son Damian has gone one step further.
Actress Liz’s lookalike son, 21, recently directed his mother in a racy lesbian sex scene for his debut film, Strictly Confidential - and now she has responded to critics who found that “weird.”
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The erotic thriller flick, which was released in cinemas last month, sees 58-year-old Liz snogging her 20-something lover, played by Pear Chirava.
Speaking to Abbey Clancy on her podcast Exhibit A, Liz said: “I get why people are like ‘how can you work together you two and particularly in the scenes you're shooting?'
“We don't have that relationship, you know I came from a much bigger family, mum, dad, two siblings but Damian's only ever had me and I've only ever had Damian.”
Far from finding the saucy scenes uncomfortable to direct, 21-year-old Damian told The Times: “I hate to say that it felt totally normal. I don’t know what that says about us.”
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He added to Abbey: “I think when you're a single parent single child, the facade of I'm the parent you're the child you're going to do what I say kind of goes, you can’t sulk off in a gang of kids, or sulk off in a gang of parents, you’d be alone.”
Liz added: “We've had a short hand and a closeness which is very different to how I had my parents and I love my parents.
“The idea of having them at work with me would have been horrific, I could never have stood it but we just don't have that no we're like little twin souls in some ways and it works really well.”
Damian revealed there were no intimacy coordinators on set because “everyone was very comfortable” and he was chuffed that his mum took on such a raunchy role.
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“I don’t think she has ever been cast in a sexier part at this point in her career,” Damian added.
Tight-knit relationship
The admission surprised many but it’s far from the first time the mother-son duo’s incredibly close relationship has come under the spotlight.
Elizabeth Hurley, 58, strips off for steamy same-sex love scene in new movie - directed by her SON
Back in 2018, Liz shocked fans when it was revealed that her son took ‘sexy’ pictures of her in a bikini for her Instagram account when he was just 15 years old.
She hit back at critics, who felt it was inappropriate, insisting he’s “really good at it” and puts her at ease while taking the saucy snaps.
Liz told Abbey: "I think probably by 11 he was shooting half our beach campaigns.
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"I mean literally since pre-puberty I've got pictures of him lugging this stuff and he just had an eye so he'd been filming me for so long that it was a very natural progression.
"Everyone's like my god is it just really weird having your son be your director and having your son photograph you and having your son direct you in some of those scenes which are intimate and stuff and I'm like no - our normal is him with the camera in his hand."
The mum-and-son duo say their bond was strengthened while working together on Damian’s directorial debut Strictly Confidential.
After writing the script during lockdown, he realised the main character - a "glamorous, glorious woman" - had to be played by his mother.
Liz's promise
It led Damian to cash in on a promise Liz made to him when he was eight years old.
Liz told Access Hollywood: “As a young kid he was making short movies the whole time, bullying me, friends, family to be in his baby films.
“He always said, ‘If I ever get to make a real film will you be in it?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, your first film I will definitely be in’.
"Of course, for all I knew he could have ended up being a physicist or something but he didn’t, he stayed in the business and he called me on it."
I get why people are like ‘how can you work together you two and particularly in the scenes you're shooting?'
Liz Hurley
Damian, who calls photographing his mum "just business", believes the pair working together in this way is only unusual to those who have not grown up in the public gaze.
“I was speaking to a lot of my friends who are also second-generation of parents in the industry,” says Damian, who counts Brooklyn Beckham, Kate Moss's daughter Lila and Jude Law's daughter Iris among his pals.
“They say exactly the same thing, that things to outsiders that may seem totally strange and extraordinary, for us we’ll just have grown up with in everyday life.”
Life has rarely been normal for Damian, who followed in his mother’s footsteps and bagged his first modelling job at the age of 15.
What is Damian Hurley's film, Strictly Confidential?
Strictly Confidential shared its first trailer at the end of February.
The 15-rated thriller stars Elizabeth as the lead character Lily, a grieving mother who unravels truths about her daughter's death.
The trailer shows a glimpse of Elizabeth's sex scene, where one of her late daughter's friends is seen kissing her neck while pushing her against a wall.
In the YouTube video's comments section, fans have been giving their opinions on Elizabeth's latest role.
"So, Damian directed his mom in a lesbian scene? That's gonna be something to talk about at Christmas dinner," one person wrote.
"The suspense in the film definitely has my interest," a second said.
A-list upbringing
During one of those early gigs, he worked with “old family friend” Naomi Campbell.
When he made his first short film, he persuaded his godfather Hugh Grant to star - in a bald skull cap.
And growing up around A-list pals like the Beckhams and his other godfather, Sir Elton John, was just the way it was.
"Our parents love to say that Brooklyn Beckham and I were caught raiding and trying on our godfather Elton John's sunglasses when we were extremely young," he has said.
As a teenager, Damian benefited from his mum's fame, starring alongside her in three episodes of the 2015 US soap drama, The Royals.
Throughout that time, they remained incredibly close and often shared gushing posts online celebrating each other’s successes.
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Family heartache
Recently, the director described Liz as his “partner in crime” and in interviews has said they are more “like siblings”.
Damian attributes their closeness to the difficulties they have faced together including challenges with his father Steve Bing – who initially denied his paternity and was absent for much of his son's life.
“Mum filled the role of 800 parents at the same time. We are so close. Sometimes like siblings," Damian said.
Businessman Steve, who died from suicide in 2020, dated Liz for a year until 2001 but when she became pregnant, he suggested she had been unfaithful.
Everyone's like my god is it just really weird having your son be your director and having your son photograph you and having your son direct you in some of those scenes which are intimate and stuff and I'm like no - our normal is him with the camera in his hand
Liz Hurley
Later, he offered a staggering £1.8million in child support payments – £100,000 per month – after a DNA test proved he was the father but Liz refused to accept the money.
When he died, the pair were said to be devastated that Damian was cut out of the will, but the tragedy brought them closer.
Secret romance
Damian was linked to Millie Griffiths, an artist and former school friend, after being photographed together in Portofino, Italy, in 2022.
However, he kept quiet about the romance – never addressing nor confirming speculation that they were an item.
The model revealed his mum was always “very, very, very cautious” about introducing him to lovers until the relationships were serious.
And it seems Damian is the same, telling The Times that he has started seeing someone new but the mystery individual has yet to be introduced to his mum.
He said: “If I like them she probably will too. God I hope so.”
Fashion twins
Having both worked in fashion, the mother and son have a lot in common and Damian recently admitted they borrow each other's clothing.
He said: “I steal leather [her] trousers all the time when we’re the same size. Jackets are always great.
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“Any big, oversized blazers she steals in a heartbeat.”
The 21-year-old says they are “extraordinarily alike” in general and “apart from having the same face, we are really, really in tune”.
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