As bold in life as she is in fashion, the actor talks glamour, loss and how working with son Damian strengthened their bond.
Can it really have been 30 years since Elizabeth Hurley wore That Dress? A whole three decades since that gravity-defying sliver of artfully cut Versace black silk, Lycra and strategically placed Medusa-head gold safety pins upstaged not only Hugh Grant , but the entirepremiere, thereby creating the ultimate red-carpet moment against which all others shall be judged?
Elizabeth Hurley – actor, model, producer and swimwear brand founder – is chatting to me in her sitting room. She’s dressed cosily in a grey cashmere sweater, and her eye make-up is perfectly smoky .
“I’d never modelled a day in my life, but I was flown to New York and Albert Watson did two days of photographic tests with me … and somehow we stumbled through it.”Hurley had the last laugh, of course. She has been on the Lauder books for 29 years now and is the global ambassador for the Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign. Stylist Ann Caruso, who dresses Hurley for her breast-cancer campaign appearances, tells me that she simply “commands attention in a superstar way.
“Becoming a parent changes you in so many ways. I mean, you’re always scared for your kids on some level. As they’re growing up those fears change in some ways. But you worry for their safety constantly, you worry for their happiness, you worry for their mental health, you worry about everything … But I’m quite a worrier, anyway, so that does tap in a little bit.”Today, the pair are incredibly close.
Having hit a poignant pause, we reroute our conversation back to fashion. She admits she is less “cavalier” than she was in her youth about throwing things together and just knowing “they will look great”. “Now I sort of plan it out a little bit more. You know, if I’m doing TV and I’ve got to sit in a chair, I don’t want the camera up my crotch.”
She squints at me before answering, although whether this indicates discomfort with the question or her desire not to seem disingenuous I can’t quite be sure. “Well, there is such an obsession with men and women who hold up better than others. I mean, it’s pretty insulting to people who maybe aren’t being put in the camp of, ‘Wow, they’re holding up well.’ None of us really know why it works better for some people,” she says with a shrug.
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