Elizabeth Hurley: Hurley in the Morning

Q: In The Weight of Water you costar with Sarah Polley and Sean Penn, two highly impressive actors. Did they impress you?

A: I got on with Sean very well. The film is cut into three time segments, and we star in the modern one, in which a crime that occurred in Nova Scotia in the 1800s is being investigated. When we were making the movie, Sean and I were convinced that our modern bit was the best of it. Now, when I watch the film, I realize the segment in which Sarah Polley stars is really wonderful. She's absolutely fantastic. [Laughing] I mean, Sean and I are fine, but, as it turns out, it's really Sarah's film.

Q: Are you happy with Double Whammy?

A: It's very clever. [Writer-director] Tom DiCillo has woven three different stories together. Denis Leary plays a detective and I play a chiropractor. It's a movie I like a lot. It's very charming. Denis, of course, is great.

Q: If you read the papers, you two are more than friends--you're a hot item.

A: He's literally one of my best friends in the world. I talk to him every day. If his wife [screenwriter Ann Lembeck] weren't married to Denis, I'd marry her in a heartbeat. They have two great kids. It's very offensive that everybody cannot accept that two people of the opposite sex can hang out and have a laugh.

Q: Do you .still audition for roles?

A: No.

Q: Would you?

A: [After a pause] Yes, of course. I'd be extremely happy to screen-test for anyone. I haven't done one for years, but I definitely would for a big break. Even when I was struggling, I loathed reading for a part in someone's office. As a producer, I've noticed almost no correlation with that and what happens on the set. Some people are very good at auditions, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to give you much on camera. It's much more valuable to watch people work, even if it's an episode from a bad TV show. I had lunch with Harold Ramis, and a nice chat, and he offered me Bedazzled, which was very nice because no audition was required.

Q: How aggressive do you get when you hear of a role you'd love to play?

A: Very occasionally, somebody in my office will say, "Hey, I just read in the trades that Universal bought the rights to book X, and you'd be great for it." What I would then do is say to my agent, "Hey, someone just told me they bought the rights to X. Why don't you track that one for me?" Then promptly forget all about it. I'm not very diligent like that. I don't tend to read scripts. It's rather depressing to read a script that you know is about to be offered to somebody terribly grand. If they've passed on it, then it's worth reading. People pass on things for many different reasons, usually because they're the sort of people who get offered 8,000 things. I'd get quite cross if I knew someone had sent me something, and there were three people ahead of me.

Q: Have there been any recent movie roles you truly wanted to play, like Bridget Jones?

A: Golly, I think I would have been ludicrous as Bridget Jones. I think Renée [Zellweger] was perfect. She made me laugh a huge amount. I loved that movie. I paid to see it twice the first week it came out. I loved Hugh in it.

Q: What happened with Tomb Raider?

A: I was supposed to be in Tomb Raider before anyone had even bought the rights to the video game, so far as I know--I think because I had dark hair and was English. People said it, but I was never a candidate for Tomb Raider. Never. I'd met the director once before, but I think they wanted someone much younger so they could do a franchise for years and years. And I think they wanted an American. I think people think I'm a little girly to be parading around with machine guns doing karate moves.

Q: Hollywood is ludicrously merciless on its beauties once they pass 30. Now that you're 36, have you encountered any of that?

A: [Laughing] I'm on borrowed time. But I've never worked more or had more offers than in the last two years. To me, my career is better than it's ever been. I can certainly read a script now and think, This reads younger, I think I'm wasting my time reading it. Actually, there's a role in a Jim Thompson book I like, and I think that even though I'm physically the right age to play the role and I could conceivably have a 17-year-old son, it's going to be hard for someone to see me on-screen with a 17-year-old.

Q: Would you ever consider cosmetic surgery?

A: I hope I'll age gracefully. I was having lunch at a brasserie in Paris and saw this absolutely gorgeous French woman--her hair all gone gray and beautifully cut in a bob. A little makeup, definitely hadn't had any surgery and she was beautiful, confident. I just thought, Dear God, don't let me have surgery and dyed hair when I'm 60.

Q: According to the gossips, you've had tons of surgery already.

A: [Laughing] Oh, yes, ribs taken out. All sorts of things. And too many late nights, which is true, but I haven't been to a club in 20 years.

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