Damian Hurley has revealed that his directorial debut, Strictly Confidential, was loosely inspired by the death of his father, Steve Bing, in 2020.
The new film, starring his mother Elizabeth Hurley, follows a young woman who returns to the Caribbean island where she and her best friend Rebecca shared their final days before Rebecca's unexpected death. However as Mia "sets out to unravel the mysterious events of her passing, old passions rise, new secrets are uncovered and Mia is pulled into a seductive world of sex, betrayal and murder".
© Raymond HallSteve Bing died by suicide in June 2020 at the age of 55. He had always denied he was Damian's father until a paternity test proved it.
"I came up with this after I lost a very close friend to suicide, I was 17, and it was the first death me and any of my friends had know, and it was a devastating time," Damian shared on The View on Thursday April 4.
"I watched a lot of my friends go into this strange mode – that I could not understand – where they just refused to accept it had happened and I could sympathize but I did not understand until my own biological father took his own life a year later and then I understood it all too well."
© Evan AgostiniThe film did not have an intimacy coordinator but Elizabeth admitted that she felt "safe" being directed by her son, and that it was so well-directed that it never felt strange to perform sex scenes in front of the 22-year-old.
"I was really comfortable; sometimes when you do an intimate scene you put yourself in the hands of the filmmakers and it's out of your control," added Elizabeth. "But with Damian behind the camera, I felt really safe because I knew he would look out for me on the set, in the edit, and in post. I felt for the first time ever doing a scene like that that he would be true to what we knew we were shooting."
Elizabeth, 54, and Damian have always been close, and the Bedazzled star, who has worked with the likes of Brendan Fraser and Mike Myers, previously told HELLO! that being directed by her son was "actually fabulous".
"We're very close anyway. We've done a lot of photography together, so it moved on stage from that", she explained. "I think it was very nice for both of us actually!"
The pair also worked together on the former drama series The Royals when Damian took up the role of Prince Hansel von Liechtenstein in the E! Series which starred his mom as the Queen of the United Kingdom.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
