Co-star Dennis Quaid praised Demi Moore’s performance in Coralie Fargeat’s horror movie, calling it “the beginning of an incredible third act” in her career.
Demi Moore said that acting in The Substance, a body horror film by Coralie Fargeat, showed her a lot of vulnerability and rawness on screen.
The movie, which is a gory and campy satire on beauty standards, toxic masculinity, and female self-hatred, features a lot of nudity and gruesome violence. It drew a lot of attention after its world premiere in Cannes. Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a famous actress who becomes a celebrity host for a daytime exercise show. She is replaced by a younger, prettier star, played by Margaret Qualley, leading to a confrontation between the two. One of the film’s most graphic scenes shows Moore and Qualley in a naked, bloody fight. The audience at Cannes loved the movie and gave it a great reception.
Moore spoke highly of working with Qualley, saying they were close during some of the more intense scenes and that there was a lightness while filming them.
At a press conference for The Substance, Moore said the film pushed her out of her comfort zone, but she knew the explicit scenes were necessary for the story. She appreciated Fargeat’s sensitive approach to filming those scenes, which helped establish mutual trust.
While some compared the film’s story to Moore’s experiences in Hollywood, Moore said she did not see herself as a victim. Instead, she viewed The Substance as a critique of the male perspective of the ideal woman.
Fargeat explained that the film’s violence symbolizes the emotional and physical harm that men inflict on women and that women inflict on themselves in their pursuit of unrealistic beauty ideals. She said she incredibly showed the violence to highlight its severity.
The male characters in the movie represent different types of toxic masculinity. Still, the filmmakers stressed they are not condemning all men, just jerks. “We’re not anti-men, we’re anti-jerks,” Moore said.
Quaid, who plays a sleazy TV producer named Harvey, added that Fargeat doesn’t hate men, just bad people. He found playing such characters fun and dedicated his role to the late Ray Liotta, cast initially as Harvey.
Working Title produced the Substance and was initially set to be distributed by Universal. Instead, it will be released in the U.S. by Mubi, marking the most significant theatrical release for the arthouse streamer.