After several seasons of stormy weather and unpleasant headlines, Elizabeth Hurley is refocusing on what she came to Hollywood to do in the first place--make movies.
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At several points in her life recently, Elizabeth Hurley might have considered chucking it all and retreating to a cozy, secluded cottage tucked away in the Cotswolds. Considering what she's been through since 1994, it's not like anyone would blame her. After grabbing headlines for wearing an eye-popping Versace number held together--just--by safety pins to the premiere of her former longtime boyfriend Hugh Grant's movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, she suffered the trauma of being the wronged woman when Grant cheated on her with a lady for hire in 1995. There was the professional disappointment of seeing the medical thriller Extreme Measures and the Mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes--the two films she produced through her and Grant's shingle, Simian Films--fizzle at the box office. There was the intense media scrutiny when she and Grant broke off their relationship last year. Then there's been the nonstop flurry of ludicrous, unsettling gossip items and strange happenings that the tabloids have had a field day dissecting. How she's been dating every man under the sun, from Denis Leary to Mick Jagger to art dealer Tim Jefferies to businessman Teddy Forstmann (most of whom are old friends). How she told Jane magazine that Grant was an unspectacular lover (the publication has since printed a retraction and apologized). How she filmed an Estée Lauder TV commercial during the SAG strike when she shouldn't have (she insists she didn't know she was violating any rules). How she considers Marilyn Monroe fat (she claims her quote was taken out of context). It's enough to make anyone want to run for the hills and seek blissful anonymity.
The last decade of Elizabeth Hurley's life hasn't been all about downturns and misunderstandings, however. Quite the contrary. She's flourished as the face of Estée Lauder; she has a healthy feature-film career, thanks to the big hit Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; she's become an international icon and has appeared on "Most Beautiful" lists across the globe; she has several projects brewing at Simian, which she still runs with Grant; and she calls some of the most established people in the world from pop star Elton John to fashion designer Valentino her good friends. In the last year, Hurley decided to step up her work as an actress, which is why she now has three films due for release. She's costar-ring with Sean Penn in The Weight of Water, from Point Break director Kathryn Bigelow. She'll also appear opposite Denis Leary in Double Whammy, written and directed by Tom DiCillo, who turned out the quirky indie gem Living in Oblivion. Hurley's biggest film, though, is the comedy Servicing Sara, directed by Reginald Hudlin (The Ladies Man), in which she plays the titular beauty who causes trouble for process server Matthew Perry--who had a bit of trouble of his own during production.
I meet Hurley one morning at her leased house perched atop one of L.A.'s more famous hills. Looking sensational in tight slacks and a T-shirt, she greets me in her driveway with a hug and warmly welcomes me inside in that low, plummy voice that sounds as if she gargles Chambord. Despite the early hour, she is buoyant, supremely together and ready to have at the day. She leads me into her rambling home and we settle on a comfortable couch in the living room. Surrounding us are wraparound mountain views, shelves of expensive art and photography books and framed snapshots of Hurley with her parents, her sister and her beloved now-deceased dog. Occasionally, one of her assistants floats in to make sure we're well stocked with drinks and tapes. Oh, that's another thing--tapes. Once I set down my tape recorder on the couch, Hurley, with a flush of embarrassment, sets down one of her own.
ELIZABETH HURLEY: Please don't take offense, but I'm obliged to tape-record this conversation. I had a very bad experience with Jane magazine last year. Because of that, even when it's journalists and magazines I trust, my libel attorney has told me I must record everything I say. [Laughing] Hideous.
STEPHEN REBELLO: What happened with Jane?
A: They completely made up that quote [about Hugh Grant being a boring lover]. They passionately declared at first that they had everything on tape, which, of course, I knew they didn't. I think they were just sure that no one would ever dream of going up against a massive, frightening corporation. [Phone rings] I'm sorry, but I have to take this call. It's my libel attorney--I've just been libeled again. It's not a bad libel, but I believe in nipping it in the bud or they carry on like fungus. Someone's just written that I had two long, loving lunches with Mick Jagger. Which I didn't. [Hurley darts to another room to take the call, then returns a few minutes later.]
Q: You've never had a meal with Mick Jagger?
A: We actually had one dinner, yes. And I was with my boyfriend and six other English people at the table. And, suddenly, it. was two long lunches with Mick Jagger. That sort of thing does upset other people.
Q: A boyfriend?
A: I have been seeing someone for a while who's an American, and whom I'm very fond of. He would be so mortified if I talked about him in the press, I'd probably get strangled.
Q: That'd be a pretty extreme reaction.
A: [Laughing] He's not a mobster. He's not a rock star. And he's not an ex-president. None of the above.
Q: Have any of the men the press has connected you with been even passing flings?
A: No, most of them are either gay or married.
Q: Do you ever have moments when you think, "How did I get to this place, and why am I here?"
A: [Laughing] Sometimes, in moments of madness, when things are spiraling out of control. Great things that happen are not fair either, so I get on with it. Sometimes I have been in situations, like the Jane magazine thing, where I go, "I've never done anything wrong to anybody in my life, so it's not fair this is happening to me." But that doesn't last too long.
Q: Getting back to men, what sort of relationship is right for you at this time in your life?
A: Oh, Stephen, that's such a grown-up question. Oh, dear. I don't know. I've always considered that most things that happen are inadvertent. I take comfort in that, in a way. It's less frightening to me. I've never thought there was much to be gained by planning anything. I take a day-by-day attitude.
Q: Having undergone a very public split from Hugh Grant, do you feel for Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts, who've more recently experienced public breakups?
A: I think it's hideous to live your private life in public. Since going through bad times myself, even though it sounds very smug to say it, I swear to God I've never made a judgment on what somebody else does behind closed doors.
Q: You and Hugh handled your split admirably.
A: We cry, too. We both cried a while ago, actually. I was single at the time. He was single, as he always has been. We went out for dinner together in New York, then we went into a bar for a drink. For some reason, they played this incredibly sad Ella Fitzgerald song that we used to listen to, and we both sobbed. Awful. A nice Irish bartender just kept putting drinks in front of us and ignoring us. Life is sad. It's very sad when things don't work out.
Q: Did you or Hugh end the relationship?
A: I instigated it, but it was really mutual. I could easily not have done that, and we could probably have easily stayed together for another 50 years. It just seemed like the right thing to do. We're still enormous supports to each other. We speak all the time. I adore him.
Q: How are you feeling right now about life?
A: I'm rather tired. I've done a ton of movies in a row.
Q: Did you take a break for a while?
A: I took time off to finish Mickey Blue Eyes, which took way longer than I expected. I hadn't done a film, except a few small bits, for about a year and a half. So now, there are three movies all about to come out at the same time.
Q: Much has been written about Servicing Sara, and how production came to a halt when your costar, Matthew Perry, entered rehab. Was the making of the movie as fraught as it sounds?
A: It was a tricky movie. The eight weeks we shot first were quite difficult. I've seen footage from that, and it's sort of astonishing that I don't think anyone's going to actually pick up that Matthew wasn't feeling his absolute best.
Q: How true were the rumors that, for instance, he was constantly late, difficult and that the crew came to loathe him?
A: I think he was in torment. That can manifest itself, whether it's in lateness or whatever. I think it's hard for some people to wait. I don't mind waiting, myself. I only have to work a certain number of hours a day anyway. I think there was a lot of anger when the film shut down. I wasn't angry. There's not much point in being angry because it's not going to change it. I think the crew were very upset to lose their jobs, but I think anybody would be upset. We were shut down for 10 weeks. I wasn't paid an extra penny, and I couldn't take a job in that time. So, it's not great.
Q: Was there a moment when you felt you were caught in a vortex?
A: No, not really.
Q: How did you and Perry meet for the movie?
A: We had lunch together, just the two of us, before I signed on. You have to check that somebody makes you laugh and that they're going to be relatively nice. He's charming. Even when he was drinking a lot and not in good shape, he was always charming. He always got it together by the end of the day to get the scene.
Q: How different was he when he returned to the movie?
A: He seemed mortified to have upset everybody. But he was, literally, a different person, and was fantastic. And he's very funny in the movie. [A bug buzzes us both] There's a lot of insects up here. Just slap it. I'm an expert at catching spiders by one leg now.
Q: What do you do with them once you've caught them?
A: I'm not afraid of them. I take them outside and let them go. Unless they're in the sink. Then, I turn on the tap. Ants I'm not very kind to. But, touch wood, I've never seen an ant in this house. Of course, there's no food, so there's nothing for them to live for. [Laughing] I'm not particularly fond of insects. And if I saw a squirrel, I'd be happy to shoot it.
Q: Really? That surprises me.
A: They're rodents.
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.
Q: What about nonsurgical procedures?
A: I have a girlfriend who's 50, very good-looking, who had something illegal done--she had free-floating silicone injected in tiny little particles into her cheeks. But where does it float to? I'm a complete coward about these things.
Q: How is it going at Simian Films?
A: I've neglected it hideously. I took a year and a half out of Simian, really. Stuff was ticking away, but I was making a lot of movies and so was Hugh and we split up and it was difficult. But at the beginning of this year, we made two new deals, one with Castle Rock and one with Intermedia.
Q: Hugh was in both your earlier efforts, Extreme Measures and Mickey Blue Eyes. Are you going to star in any of them in the future?
A: Very much so. At least half of the stuff in the last couple of months that we've been putting into various stages of development, I will probably star in. And Hugh's in the other half.
Q: But the two of you won't costar in the same movie?
A: We've got one idea where we would be together. We thought now that we're not going out together, we'd actually be allowed to do it. I don't know if it will happen. It's a story Hugh came up with, I embellished and I want him to write. It's a comedy.
Q: What are some other projects you hope to develop?
A: We're developing a few erotic thrillers. I've watched a ton of them in the last month. You can really tell when there's heat there. Definitely Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas had it in Basic Instinct, definitely Kathleen Turner and William Hurt in Body Heat. Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum, who was amazingly good, had big chemistry in Out of the Past. As I left my office today, I was in the middle of watching Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward in Against All Odds, the remake of Out of the Past. And Jeff Bridges's body in that--amazing!
Q: Speaking of bodies, you were criticized for telling a reporter that if you were as fat as Marilyn Monroe was, you'd kill yourself.
A: That was so unfair. I adore Marilyn Monroe. I used to have pictures around my mirror of Marilyn. I used to try and copy her eye makeup, her lip shape. I can do half her movies for you right here. It's so unfair that I'd be branded as someone who was mean about Marilyn Monroe. I was being nice, and that nasty interviewer picked up one sentence without anything around it.
Q: What was around it?
A: I was saying that she's my favorite person. I'd just been to see her clothes at a Sotheby's auction. I didn't buy anything. It was kind of macabre, except for the notebook of scribbles inside of her script, which was enchanting. I was saying [to the interviewer] how it must have been to live in the '50s when you were allowed to be curvy, and here I am picking at my salad because I had a photo shoot the next day. I said that now, if I were her size, I'd have to kill myself because I wouldn't work. That was it. Very unfair.
Q: Have you ever come face-to-face with a sex symbol you've looked up to?
A: I got very tongue-tied meeting Elizabeth Taylor. I'm a huge fan. Her Butterfield 8 look is something that I've had put on me very often. I met Elizabeth with Hugh when she invited us around once for a holiday celebration. I became the village idiot-- very shy and gauche--but she was absolutely charming. Sharon Stone was there, too, and she was much less shy than I.
Q: When was the last time you felt the presence of God?
A: When my dad died. Which means there hasn't been enough God in my life for four years now. Again when I had to go to Hugh's mother's funeral two weeks ago, which was very sad. I was, of course, reminded of my dad's funeral the whole time, even though I was desperately unhappy for Hugh. It was jokingly horrible.
Q: Were you and his mother close?
A: I wasn't actually that close to his mother, but seeing Hugh... [Breaks off] I knew her, of course. But it was quite strange being back with all his family because, obviously, we are estranged now, even though I still see Hugh. But there were his cousins, uncles and godparents and all that. So, it was quite unsettling in many ways.
Q: Are you Catholic?
A: I'm a weird half-and-half. I was really brought up Church of England, which is Protestant, but my father was Catholic, though he didn't practice. My mother is a practicing Protestant. But I went to Catholic school, so I'm a bit of both. I go to Catholic church as it happens, though I've never actually been baptized in the Catholic church. I like any church, but I've always liked the rituals attached to the Catholic church. I like lighting candles for people. I like the incense and the choir. Of course, I weep every time.
Q: Have you been let down often?
A: Not very often, because I don't really trust that many people. There are things that chip away at your faith, though. This is such a trivial thing to say, but once I had a nice chat with a British Airways stewardess, who was incredibly nice and I was very nice to her. The next day, it was in the papers, this person saying how all I did was sit and tell her I buy Chanel perfume. Which is crap. She actually came up to me and asked, "What are you wearing?" It was Estée Lauder. And we had a lovely, girly chat about hair and makeup, things like that. That was such a hideous thing to do, I wanted to say, "Why on earth would you do that?" Your temptation is to say, "I'm not going to talk to strangers anymore."
Q: Madonna was recently named in a survey as the woman most other women admire. Have you ever coveted the life of another woman?
A: God, I don't think so. I can covet somebody's brain sometimes. It's going to sound like I'm name-dropping, but I was astounded by Bill Clinton's intellect and knowledge. I had a chat with him at a fund-raiser. Astonishing. Really dynamic, clever, unbelievably bright. It's rare that you meet someone who's really intellectually up there.
Q: Have you ever written a fan letter?
A: When I was nine I wrote to Jimmy Osmond. I got back a life-sized poster of him wearing pink corduroy jeans, which I hung on my closet door.
Q: What's something you had fun doing in your youth that people wouldn't guess?
A: I'd frequently make boys go out dressed as girls. Both straight guys and gay guys. I think they feel vulnerable, that if a big, butch, nasty boy recognizes that there's another boy in a dress, they'll be in trouble.
Q: Why did you do that?
A: It's just one of those things teenage girls do, like putting makeup on their boyfriends. I don't think it has to do with making them put on your underwear and finding it sexy. Personally, I can't think of anything less sexy than a man in my underwear.
Q: Have you ever wanted to go out dressed as a man?
A: I think I'd like it, but with a new personality, not just myself. Most of the boys I really love are actually quite girly, come to think of it.
Q: What's missing in your life these days?
A: I'm very much lacking a dog. Mostly because of England's terrible quarantine laws. It's a six-month quarantine, and absolutely unnecessary. They're very kind to them in quarantine; you can visit, but it tends to be upsetting to the animals when you leave again. Do you know that not one of them has ever developed rabies? The whole system is all about money. I had a dog here in America that I rescued and ended up taking home to England. When I visited her, she ate her paws for a long time. Awful. She unfortunately got cancer and died, so she was with me in England for only a year and a half. But she had the best year of her life. It would be irresponsible of me now to get a dog, but it's annoying because I'd love having two hefty German shepherds lolloping around this house.
Q: What do you hope people might write about you 20 years from now?
A: It would be nice to have been in and produced good films. Maybe to have done a few nice things to help other people. But who the hell knows? [Laughing] I'm sure there'll be some scurrilous gossip. I mean, Jean Shrimpton was a very successful model from England who must have retired 30 years ago, and now runs a hotel, but she's still tormented by the British press. It's a lifetime of "Has she had surgery?" or "She used to be really thin, but now she's really fat."
Q: What's your plan for staying sane while staying in show business?
A: The only people I see who've been around for a bit with any semblance of happiness seem to be people who aren't caught up in the star system. They kept grounded. They have great mates and are pretty normal, surrounded by family, friends they've known for years. That seems to be the way to go. To isolate yourself in your own lunacy, which is extremely easy to do, would be awful for the soul.
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Stephen Rebello interviewed Raquel Welch for the August issue of Movieline.