Demi Moore gets candid about body image and the “self-judgment” she explores in her new film Substance.
In a new interview with The Guardianreleased on Saturday, Sept. 14, the 61-year-old actress opened up about her latest film — which premiered Sept. 5 at the Toronto International Film Festival — as well as her relationship with her own body over the years.
Speaking about the expectations of women’s bodies in the 90s, Moore said that women were not considered attractive unless they were thin at the time. “What I did to myself,” she told the newspaper. “What I did means to me. Really looking at that violence, how violent we can be to ourselves, how brutal we can be.”
“Self-judgment, chasing perfection, trying to get rid of ‘flaws,’ also feeling rejected and despairing, none of this is exclusive to women,” Moore continued, before referencing a scene in the film where her character, Elisabeth Sparkle, looks for her flaws in the mirror before the date.
“We’ve all had those moments where you go back and try to fix something, and you just make it worse to the point where you become incapacitated,” the actress explained. “We see these little things no one else does, but we’re so hyper-focused on everything we’re not. All of us, if we start thinking that our value is only in how we look, then we’re going to be broken in the end.”
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Demi Moore poses at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2024.
Michelle Quance/Variety via Getty
Moore then clarified that “we live in a time of great judgment,” where “people can anonymously judge each other in cruel ways.”
“I feel it [this kind of judgment] is a reflection of one’s own unhappiness and/or a way for them to bolster their own sense of self,” she told The Guardian. “When those things happen, I’ve learned to let it play out. That’s what I make it mean to me. If I give it a lot of weight and value and power, it’s going to have it. If not, no won.”
Substance follows Moore’s character Elisabeth as she tries black market drugs to create a younger version of herself. Directed by Coralie Fargeat, the film – which also stars Margaret Qualley – explores themes including body image and societal expectations for women and ageing. It won the award for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
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Demi Moore at the premiere of ‘The Substance’ at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2024.
Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic
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As her film shows her character trying to create a younger version of herself, Moore – who has daughters Rumer, 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 30, with ex-husband Bruce Willis – shared on Today revealed last week that he was living through “the most exciting time of his life” now aged 61.
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“We are what the future is for women, and I look at having my daughters and I don’t want to [it] to ever have it in their minds that there is an end,” Moore said at the time.
“For me, this is the most exciting time in my life. It is – I feel like my kids are grown, I have the most independence and autonomy to really redefine where I want to go,” she added. “I don’t know what it looks like or where it is, but I’m just excited to live in it.”
Substance arrives in theaters on September 20.
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Source: HIS Education