I froze, so wobbly I could barely breathe. Surely I couldn’t attempt such an absurd feat at only 20 years old? The executive’s voice interrupted him: “So kid, are you in?” My inner coward begged me to run away, but then my despotic eight-year-old self took control and responded, in his most adult voice, “When do we start?”
Three months of frenzied panic. I knew I needed someone on my side who was unequivocally Team Damian, so I begged my mother, Elizabeth Hurley, to come on board as producer. Then I got down on the floor, determined to write the best possible screenplay… but to no avail. Eventually, I discovered a treatment that I had written when I was 17, after losing a close friend to suicide. At the time I had put it aside, deciding I wasn’t yet ready to tell the story, but in the span of three years I had lost a parent, also to suicide, and I had been forced to grow up quickly. I realized that I now had the experience needed to bring the script to life, and Strictly confidential is born: the story of a young woman haunted by the suicide of her best friend and determined to find answers. Endless rewriting and editing followed, until finally I was satisfied. By the time I finished my final draft, I was emotionally exhausted and desperate to rest. But of course, we were only at the beginning.
Once the script was approved and the project was officially greenlit, I was on the next flight to Nevis, a little gem in the Caribbean, where we were to film. My mother, who had promised during the filming of my very first short film that she would star in my first real film, agreed to play a supporting role.
