Demi Moore spoke with The New York Times about her decision to take the role and how it felt to bare all — both emotionally and physically — in a role that could see the veteran actress pick up some accolades from critics groups.
Demi Moore is earning universal praise from critics and the best reviews of her career for her work in "The Substance."
The body horror flick, which was written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, required Moore to do full-frontal nudity in multiple scenes. The film made its premiere back in May at the Cannes Film Festival and is finally hitting theaters stateside this week.
Moore spoke with The New York Times about her decision to take the part and how it felt to bare all — both emotionally and physically— in a role that could see the veteran actress pick up some end-of-the-year accolades from critics groups.
"Going into this, I knew this is not about me looking great, and in fact there was a certain liberation in the role that wasn’t having to be perfect," Moore told The New York Times. "It’s not that there aren’t shots in it where I go, 'Ugh, my ass looks awful' [laughs], but I’m also OK with it. Part of what was interesting is that Elisabeth is being rejected, and it’s not that I look that bad."
Surprisingly, Moore said in the interview that she did not have the same attitude when she famously posed nude for the cover of Vanity fair — twice.
"I think that’s one of the misconceptions, this idea of, 'Oh, I love my body so much,' versus what the truth was: that these things were coming along, obviously I was choosing them, but I think it was all in service of helping me try to overcome my issues, like my self-loathing, my feeling of not being enough. To help build my confidence, not because I was confident," Moore said.
In "The Substance," 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 losing her perch atop the diet and exercise world, a turn of events that prompts her to turn to a drug known as "the substance," which replicates her cells to clone a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley.
Things spiral out of control when the two women violate the drug's cardinal rule, that requires Moore and Qualley to switch out every seven days. When this contract is violated, the film veers into the grotesque and ends with a scene that is sure to shock audiences.
Critic Justin Change of The New Yorker writes in his review of the film:
"Moore, however, is persuasive, and for reasons that are painful to consider. At the height of her nineties stardom, she drew misogynist jabs aplenty from the press, who targeted her movies, her performances, and her personal life. Now sixty-one, and with a quieter Hollywood profile, she is as poignant an emblem of sexist, ageist industry neglect as Fargeat could have hoped to conjure. But Moore’s casting is more than just a symbolic coup. The most shattering moment in “The Substance” belongs to her alone: in a sequence of wrenching simplicity, Elisabeth, preparing for a rare night on the town, stares with utter desolation into her bathroom mirror, and what it reflects is not horror but heartache."
Moore admits that she sees parts of herself in the character, telling the Times: "This is a woman who has no family — she’s dedicated her entire life to her career, and when that’s taken, what does she have? And so, in a way, I had enough separation from her, and at the same time, a deep, internal connection to the pain that she was experiencing, the rejection that she felt. I knew it would be challenging, but potentially a really important exploration of the issue."
