Interview by Fabián Waintal
Introduction by Elia Essen
Photography by SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Santa Barbara Film Festival
Demi Moore has been breaking barriers throughout her career. The actress first emerged on the scene in her late teens and early 20s in films and shows that included General Hospital, Blame It On Rio, and St. Elmo’s Fire with a quiet tenacity that soon catapulted her to the upper echelons of Hollywood’s A-list.
As Moore’s fame grew, her film credits expanded to include a diverse number of complex and often controversial female characters, from a wife offered $1 million to sleep with another man in Indecent Proposal to a lieutenant commander in A Few Good Men. Off screen, she has also never shied away from boldly and unapologetically staying true to herself—even if it means enduring backlash. Such as what followed the contentious $12.5 million paycheque she received for Striptease that made her the highest paid female actor in the world at the time.
Moore’s name has become synonymous with a certain sexy panache, not just from her trademark long, dark hair (she made waves for shaving it for her role in G.I. Jane—further proof she’s willing to go the distance to immerse herself in her characters) and soulful eyes, but from the effortless confidence she exudes and the unquestionable talent she brings to each role.
Throughout her career, Moore has defied the typecasts Hollywood often requires female actresses to conform to and has instead proven that beauty has no expiration date—just take the iconic bikini scene she shot at age 40 for Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle or the risqué Vanity Fair cover shoot in the early 90s she did while seven months pregnant.
Now, at 62, after a slew of smaller films and taking time to focus on her three daughters, the star is back in the limelight. Her role in The Substance as an aging starlet who uses a black-market drug to create a younger version of herself earned Moore a Golden Globe, a Critics’ Choice Award and her first Academy Award nomination. She also won the Icon Award at the 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival for her contributions to the film industry. And if one thing is clear, it’s that the actress is just getting started. In an exclusive interview for Living Luxe magazine, journalist Fabián W. Waintal spoke to Moore about The Substance, how she chooses her projects, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. Read on for the full scoop.
Fabián W. Waintal (FW): Is life as a celebrity as glamorous as people imagine it to be?
Demi Moore (DM): Well, I don’t know if I could really speak about it. I think my life is very similar to anybody else’s. Maybe there are more things, maybe there are more clothes, maybe there are nicer cars, but our life is the same. The problems are the same for everybody.
FW: Does making a movie change your perception, as if you were seeing yourself in the mirror?
DM: Well, there is freedom in fully claiming who I am as I am in this moment. My own personal gift was even a greater level of liberation, showing up to do The Substance because I knew I was signing up for something that wasn’t about being shot in the most glamorous ways. In fact, in order to tell my story, I have to be willing to show the parts of myself that you don’t necessarily want everyone to see.
FW: Do you feel some type of pressure to avoid any pre-conception people have about Demi Moore?
DM: There is a different type of pressure. Obviously, I’m human, so I have moments of confronting my own ego, but I think the beautiful thing for me is that my starting point is already in a place that is in much greater acceptance and with a much greater sense of appreciation and love of self, which then allows me, I think, to go to darker places in a movie.
FW: What’s the first thing about a movie that makes you say, “Yes, I want to do this”?
DM: I think the only similarities in terms of themes for me are taking on things that I feel have the potential to move culture forward, that really are thought-provoking, that maybe could be considered risky. In a sense, I think that the idea of doing things that push me out of my comfort zone, I hope, in some ways, pushes others out of theirs—to re-examine, to process deeper questions. I also think that we have interesting stories to tell at all ages. We all have more stories to share. I think that we can’t wait for the world to say: “Yes, that’s what we want.” We just have to continue to create.
FW: And how do you react when things do not go the way you want?
DM: Sometimes it’s about getting it wrong so that we have an opportunity to overcome. I think sometimes those are the better opportunities because when it all works well, we give less thought to it. We put less energy into it, and sometimes when it doesn’t, we really have such an enormous opportunity for growth.
FW: How did you react when you were nominated for an Academy Award (although Mikey Madison won for Anora)? Did it occur to you that you might be an award contender at this point in your career?
DM: It was never part of my thinking. I was like, “I’m going over to make this little movie in France.” I really had no expectations. Then I saw the response at the Cannes Film Festival—that was also my first time really seeing it complete—and I was really just kind of in shock and awe. And I feel completely humbled continually with how this has been unfolding. I mean, I’ve been at a screening where people had seen The Substance three and four times, which is remarkable. I feel just so proud to be in something that’s pulling people into the cinema to have a communal experience. I haven’t been in anything that was in this genre.
FW: Is the story in The Substance based on your own story?
DM: Coralie Fargeat wrote and directed the movie. And I think my character Elisabeth is Coralie because this is a very personal story for her in many respects. It is part of her experience. And Margaret Qualley’s character, Sue, is, in a way, I think, the girl of the ’90s and early 2000s that perhaps she felt pitted against or was judged against. Knowing that, just really spending the time with her, at one point, I felt kind of compelled to give her my memoir because I felt there were things in that that would help her understand my own journey with my own violence against myself in relation to my body, my self-judgment. For me, the most resonating part of this story that really just hit me so deeply was not the circumstances—because, in a way, we all know it’s not new, this idea of women of a certain age being somewhat marginalized—but it was that idea of what we bought into, as well as the violence that we have against ourselves. Then, my job was to really anchor it in reality. Otherwise, it could have easily become a little bit two-dimensional or a little bit too over the top.
FW: Could we talk about the Academy Award scene of the lipstick smearing in front of the mirror?
DM: I didn’t have anyone else that I was playing off, which was also a very unusual kind of dynamic. It’s almost like the mirror was my partner. It is a very intimate experience when we’re in front of the mirror, often naked. And I always felt that was one of the most important scenes in the whole film because we’re witnessing someone who has a sliver of hope of stepping out of this self-imposed prison. And I think in some ways, we’ve all been there where we try to make something a little better, only to make it worse. And this is just the extreme version.
FW: Does prosthetic makeup help you perform better as an actress?
DM: I think as an actor, being able to have that time in the chair, even though it was a lot, also allowed for my time to shift and then start to embody this whole different aspect. I was also trying to make sense and create our own logic within the absolute illogical. I mean, obviously, having the full prosthetics on is very different; it feels different. You carry it differently. This was a very challenging shoot where we did 15 takes for each section.
FW: When you perform a scene 15 times repeatedly, how do you keep it fresh?
DM: For me, it was just important that each time I was still having a full conversation. It was a lot of takes, and in a way, I’m sure that just kind of the raw repetition may have played into it. I don’t know, but it’s just a very different experience when you’re doing something where you have no one else to play off of besides yourself. I think we’ve all had moments of that self-loathing and that way in which we can be so harshly judgmental—not even about our external beauty, but whether we’re smart enough, successful enough, all of those things. And I definitely had a well to pull from.
FW: What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from working on a movie?
DM: I was actually talking with one of my daughters who is reflecting on this moment of The Substance, when Sue has that first moment of seeing herself—me, seeing myself—in the mirror, but in this new, younger body, and really appreciating it. When it got into the battle with me overeating and torturing her, it was really also about that battle we can have with ourselves, how it can be desiring to blame someone outside of ourselves, but in truth, it always comes back to us. There is no her, there’s only you. And that is, I think, the biggest part.