Elizabeth Hurley is a thoroughly modern woman. Mother, entrepreneur, one half of a much hyped power couple and most importantly she’s a girls girl. We had the good fortune to spend some time with her as she launched her swimwear collection for Queenspark on a stunning Sydney morning at The Park Hyatt.
Despite having been mobbed earlier at her press conference, the ever gracious and charming super star was forthcoming and relaxed for our chat about her career aspirations, returning to acting and being a role model to young women.
RESCU: One of the things that is really interesting about you is that you, as we saw today, you still get mobbed, you create a frenzy. Not just by men but by women. With all the gloss and glamour that is Liz Hurley, why do you think you appeal so much to women and for such a long time?
Elizabeth Hurley: It’s interesting that you say that because I have always had a lot more female admirers than male, and I love that. I think it’s partly because I grew up in the beauty industry (she’s been the Ambassador for Estee Lauder brand for over 19 years) where we sell to and cater for and love women. So I’ve always had a lot to do with women from that point. But even with my movies, I’ve always had at least equal female fans to male fans. What’s interesting is that all the teenage girls that I’m around now because Shane (Warne) has a 16 year old daughter, I have an 18 year old niece, so I’ve got a lot of teenagers around me, they all love women too, it’s quite interesting. They love Lady Gaga, they love Rihanna, they’re their heroes and sometimes I say “do you like any male pop stars at all?” And they say “not really” they like the women! They like female actors like Kristen Stewart. They love all these young girls. I love girls too.
RESCU: Well you radiate this amazing warmth. When I asked our readers and friends what they think of Elizabeth Hurley, the thing that our readers and women in the mid 30’s to 40’s admire and most often said about you “she’s courageous”. They see you as a fearless version of what they’d like to be. You’ve done some really interesting things in and with your life, and you’ve always danced to the beat of your own drum. How have you continued to do that and stay true to who you are?’
Elizabeth Hurley: I don’t think it’s intentional I think it’s just what life’s thrown at me.
RESCU: Well I mean you’ve famously started and run a pig farm!
Elizabeth Hurley: (Laughs) I’ve never really been organized enough to have a life plan. I’ve always been reactive and very proactive. I look at the way I raise my son with my career. A lot of things are thrown at you and I’ve had an awful amount of things thrown at me at times and I suppose that seems quite exciting, I quite like it. Anybody who is self employed, no matter what field you’re in, you have to be brave or you sink. A lot of kids come up to me and say “I want to be in show business, I want to do this, I want to go into modeling” and I always think that’s fantastic but you really have to have a lot of balls to be self employed because there’s no cheque coming in at the end of the month. So if you really are ready for that then that’s good. You also have to be ready for terrible months where you don’t have any work, terrible months where you’re rejected left, right and centre and it’s not for everyone. I’ve trained with people who have had immense talent, much more talent than me, but they couldn’t take the rejection. They just couldn’t take it. It was a terrible thing for them and I’ve never really cared that much.
RESCU: And is that your advice, not to care very much?
Elizabeth Hurley: I don’t think it’s possible for some people. I think some people take a business rejection as a terrible personal rejection and they’re much better working for a corporation where they can be appreciated over the long term. So it suits me but I don’t think it suits many people.
RESCU: So you’re living a very international life at the moment. How do you juggle everything? A lot of my readers are working mothers, like yourself, like myself, who perhaps have their own business or demanding career. What do you do to keep balance and remain present for the things that matter. How do you carve out ‘me’ time?
Elizabeth Hurley: It’s not easy but my philosophy has been for the past 11 years since having my son, is that he comes first. And that’s easy. I’m never torn about it. If he’s got something on and he wants me to go to, I go to it. And that’s just that. That meant I sort of left the acting arena and movies for eight years and only did small bits because my choice was to be with him. It wasn’t a difficult choice, its what I wanted to do. Now that he’s older I’m going back into acting again and it seems right. If I thought he was suffering I wouldn’t do it but he actively encourages me and would love me to do more. He was desperate for me to do Gossip Girl. He’s really hoping the pilot I just shot gets picked up. He loves it all! If I get offered a new campaign and it means I have to go to New York for three days he’s desperate for me to do it. So now it works. But when he was four I don’t think it would’ve worked. I think you need to know what you want first and foremost.
RESCU: So at the moment you’re back to design. You’ve been doing fashion design for many years and I remember when you launched your swimwear line at David Jones. So tell me about your collaboration with Queenspark.
Elizabeth Hurley: It’s very nice, initially they invited me to front the campaign and I shot their dresses and it was very nice. Then they very kindly said they’d like to stock a lot of my swimwear, right across their stores in Australia, which is very nice for us because we sell mostly online here. For us to have a presence in their stores is fantastic. So we’ll see what happens. It’s evolved so much since you would have last seen it six or seven years ago.
RESCU: I still have my Kaftan! It is absolutely gorgeous.
Elizabeth Hurley: Well that’s from our first collection when we were very naïve in a lot of ways because when we started our own business everybody wanted to buy from us and I couldn’t deliver because we were so little. We were struggling at the beginning to be able to deliver what we promised and that’s obviously a big number one business mistake when you’re little and starting. We’ve learnt a huge amount since then, the collection’s evolved a lot, we’re way better at delivering on time now we don’t ever under deliver, we over deliver. So we’ve gotten a lot better. Starting your own tiny business is quite something.
RESCU: Do you have any business mentors? Do you get coached or advice from anybody? You have access to quite a few amazing people!
Elizabeth Hurley: Leonard Lauder has always been there for me and he’s given me some good advice over the years. I had another very good friend who sadly passed away last year, Teddy Forstmann a very successful business man (Theodore Forstmann was Chairman and CEO of international celebrity management juggernaut IMG), and he’d give me extremely good advice which I always followed to the letter, he was never wrong. He also have me personal advice he was never wrong on that either!
There are people that you take inspiration from that you see doing well, but it’s always the same they work like dogs. None of them have late nights if they’ve got an important day the next day, I never have either since I started working. Successful people never do, and those that do, well they last about a year or two then fall by the wayside. They tend to be the people who don’t realise we’re in a business not here to play and it makes a big difference.
Get Her Look:
Elizabeth Hurley was wearing a Queenspark dress.
On Beauty:
“I’ve been the Ambassador for Estee Lauder for 19 years but I do also get to try a lot of beauty products from all their brands, like La Mer before they come out. If I had to pick just one product, I absolutely swear by Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. I use Aveda hair products and for make up I love Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder and Tom Ford products.”
On Her Famous Figure:
“I don’t do a lot of exercise other than walking. I used to do a lot of Yoga but now it’s more walking.”
See our gallery of Elizabeth Hurley’s stunning red carpet moments throughout the years.