March 6, 1996
The Extreme team
Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley talking in Toronto
By LIZ BRAUN
Toronto Sun
We're as willing as the next guy to forget all about Hugh Grant's hysterically
over-publicized little sexual stumble last summer.
But the man does say, "I am a monkey," within minutes of being introduced
yesterday. He says it in an adorable fashion, mind
you.
Among the many movies being filmed in Toronto is Extreme Measures, a medical thriller that
brings Grant, his model-actor-filmmaker main squeeze Elizabeth Hurley and Sarah Jessica
Parker to our town.
That trio and the film's director, Michael Apted (Nell), held a press conference
yesterday. Heavy on the charm and wit, Grant
and Hurley did most of the speaking. She is outspoken. He sends accurate zingers her way
under his breath. You reckon they'd be fun at a party.
Extreme Measures is the first production of Simian Films, the company that Grant and
Hurley established. She is producing
this movie, not starring in it. "I'd never inflict myself on one of our
productions," she says, brightly.
Where exactly did they get the name Simian productions?
"Well, (pause) hmn," responds Hurley, doing mock thoughtful and smiling behind
her eyes. "That's an embarrassing question to start with. Ah, we've always liked
chimpanzees," she states, primly. "And other primates."
That's when Grant weighs in, with mock resignation, with his monkey comment. Men. Can't
live with them, can't shoot 'em. Never mind. Being producer makes Hurley the boss woman on
this movie, and her opinion of that is straight up: "I'm loving it."
And their opinion of working together? Hurley gives Grant a long, firm look. "We're
still alive," she quips. Adds he, "Of course, we fight like cats. But in the end
it's really nice, speaking as the leading actor, to work with someone who knows all your
faults and foibles, and who can take the director aside and say, `Don't try that, or we'll
be here all day. Just tell him his hair looks nice.' "This," he says,
pretending to be serious, "is a non-hair film for me."
Apted takes over briefly to explain that verisimilitude is what he's after with Extreme
Measures, but he adds that Grant fans,
who love his comedy work, will not be disappointed. As thrillers go, this one is not
without laughs. Says Grant of the director's eye for reality, "I could probably go
home and do open-heart surgery quite successfully after this."
He and Sarah Jessica Parker did the usual studying and watching to get familiar with
medical roles. They hung around
hospitals. "It took us a long time to get a good emergency," drawls Grant.
"I thought I was going to have to go out and shoot somebody."
Parker, smiling shyly, says, "No one wants to look like an actor pretending to be a
doctor." When asked how they spend their leisure time in Toronto, Hurley says Grant
would like to ski, but he's not allowed to - for insurance purposes on the film. She gives
him a most producer-ly look. But he is learning to skate. "With a chair. At a private
rink. I just don't want people to see
me falling down quite so much," he says.