Demi Moore Isn’t Mad She Got Substanced by Mikey Madison

I’m still pleasantly shocked that The Substance got so much love at the Oscars. It only won one of the five for which it was nominated, but the wonderfully strange film about a woman being replaced by her younger self is something I would usually expect the Academy to ignore. It’s full of gross-out moments and explosions of gore, often reserved for midnight movies. The film also has incredibly strong and poignant themes about aging, womanhood, and how f***ed up Hollywood can be. The Substance rules, and it’s impossible to talk about why it’s so good without mentioning Demi Moore.

Moore stars as Elizabeth Sparkle, a celebrity who is being forced out of the industry for daring to be a woman who gets older. She signs up for a mysterious treatment called The Substance that creates a younger version of herself that exits out of her back. When the younger version starts refusing to give control back to Elizabeth, the older star’s body begins to age rapidly and grotesquely. Moore plays both the seriousness of being scorned by Hollywood and life, and the zaniness of becoming a crazy old woman making fatty foods with aplomb. It led to an Oscar nomination for Moore that I honestly thought would be a surefire victory. Then came Anora.

Anora is about a young stripper who is swept off her feet by a young Russian billionaire client. Her life suddenly becomes a fairytale as she and the young man get married, and she is showered with extravagance. Then, her new life begins to fall apart. It’s a wonderful movie with great performances, especially by Mikey Madison, who plays the titular character. The 26-year-old actress earned rave reviews and an Oscar nomination as well. While I enjoyed Anora quite a bit, I still thought Moore had the award in the bag. She did not.

The Beavis and Butt-Head Do America actress recently revealed in an interview with Time Magazine that she knew Madison would win the award (which she did). She told her manager as much right before a commercial break. “I leaned over and whispered to my manager, ‘I think it’s going to Mikey,’” Moore explained. “I don’t know why I knew, but I did. I was so centered and calm. I didn’t feel gutted. I didn’t feel any of those kinds of things. I just trusted, and am in trust of, whatever is going to unfold.” That’s incredibly nice, especially considering that many saw this as Moore’s comeback, and like the character in her film, she was replaced by a younger woman.

What happened is less insidious and devastating than the events of The Substance, but it feels too apt a comparison not to make. There are significant differences. Mikey Madison didn’t emerge from a wound in Moore’s spine (that I’m aware of). Demi Moore is not being forced to watch Dennis Quaid eat shrimp (that I’m aware of). Demi Moore wasn’t Substanced. It just feels like she was Substanced. Instead, she’s at peace and happy to move on to what’s next (that I’m aware of).