Demi Moore talked about stripping down for the camera at the film's press conference alongside co-stars Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley as well as the film's writer and director Coralie Fargeat
The Cannes Film Festival premiere of "The Substance" gave critics and audiences much to talk about over the weekend. The body horror film stars Demi Moore in a role that is earning the actress raves and sees her baring all at the age of 61.
Moore talked about stripping down for the camera at the film's press conference alongside co-stars Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley as well as the film's writer and director Coralie Fargeat. A reporter from Variety asked the actress at one point if she had concerns about doing full-frontal nude scenes in the film given the likelihood that those stills would likely end up online given her celebrity status.
“Going into it, it was really spelled out — the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story. And it was a very vulnerable experience and just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish," said Moore.
The actress also said she felt comfortable and at ease thanks to her onscreen partner in many of those scenes, Qualley.
“I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with. We obviously were quite close — naked — and we also got a lot of levity in those moments at how absurd those certain situations were. But ultimately. it’s just about really directing your communication and mutual trust," said Moore.
In the film, Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an Oscar-winning movie star who created a workout empire when her star began to fade in Hollywood. The film opens with Moore's character at risk of losing her perch atop the diet and exercise world, prompting her to turn to a drug known as "the substance," which replicates her cells to clone a younger version of herself, played here by Qualley,
Moore's character becomes increasingly grotesque as the film progresses, with the actress becoming increasingly deformed thanks to a series of horrifying prosthetics.
The premiere over the weekend ended with an 11-minute standing ovation and according to Moore was one of the greatest moments of her career.
At the press conference the following morning the actress, who has never had a film premiere at Cannes or appear in the competition, said: "I mean if you could wave a magic wand this is the best that we could have ever hoped for."
Her last appearance at the Cannes Film Festival came in 1997 when she accompanied then-husband Bruce Willis as his film "The Fifth Element" premiered at the festival. The couple, who have three daughters - Rumer Willis, Tallulah Willis and Scout Willis - split a few years later, and Moore would go on to marry and then divorce Ashton Kutcher. The actress went public with the new man in her life at the photocall for her new film over the weekend, arriving and posing for photos with her chihuahua Pilaf.
Moore is now an early frontrunner for the Best Actress prize at the festival, a group whose contenders include Emma Stone for "Kinds of Kindness," Maria Bakalova playing Ivana Trump in the Donald Trump quasi-biopic "The Apprentice," Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón for "Emilia Perez," rising star Mikey Madison playing an adult film star in "Anora," and Diane Kruger, who won this prize in 2017 and this years stars in "The Shrouds."
Owen Glieberman of Variety wrote in his review of the film: "Demi Moore’s performance is nothing short of fearless. She’s playing, in some very abstract way, a version of herself (once a star at the center of the universe, now old enough to be seen by sexist Hollywood as past it), and her acting is rippled with anger, terror, despair, and vengeance."
