Demi Moore Accidentally Goes Full Method in Body Horror 'The Substance'

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 4, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 4, 2024 |

Demi Moore is getting a lot of Oscar buzz for her upcoming movie The Substance, a body horror in which she portrays Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging aerobics instructor who takes a “substance” that “temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.” She stars alongside Margaret Qualley. The Oscars love when an actor puts their body on the line for a role, and Moore says that’s exactly what she did.

“To give you an idea of the intensity, my first week that I actually had off, where it was just Margaret working, I got shingles,” Moore said. “And I then lost, like, 20 pounds.”

Qualley agreed that the intensity of the filming process took a toll on her body. “Oh yeah, I had crazy acne for a full, long-ass time,” she shared. But they both say it was worth it.

“You have to walk away feeling that you put it all on the table. It called for it and it’s what you want to bring to it,” Moore said. And what she wanted to bring to it was a message about the violence women inflict on their own bodies.

“It’s really what she’s doing to herself that’s most violent,” she said. “[The script] took something that is a very internalized violence against oneself and externalized it in this way that allows the audience to have a little objectivity and to then really see what we’re doing to ourselves through that harsh, constant criticism and comparison.”

Director Coralie Fargeat emphasized Moore’s point. “I read a tagline in an article about the film recently that said, ‘Being a woman is body horror.’ The movie can be scary on many levels, but the first is about playing with the violence of what we do to our bodies.”

I’ve never been one for body horror precisely for this reason: it feels too close to home. But I think that’s also why this is going to be the one that finally does it for Demi Moore. Between her and Amy Adams in Nightbitch, the Oscars this year are for the girls.