2024-09-27 04:00:18
A shadow hangs over Demi Moore’s face. We are in a hotel room in London that has been turned into an impromptu press meeting, and the big black poster for his new film The substance is wreaking havoc on lighting. Nervous men, who probably had photos of the star on their bedroom walls decades ago, swarm around him with tool belts and boxes. The woman in question doesn’t flinch.
“It’s just a reflection,” Moore says to one of the men, between sips of water from a huge glass. He points to a pile of camera remains in front of him. “If we put it in front of the pole, right there, but behind the sign, it will absorb the light.” The man, too impressed to even think about challenging her, does exactly as he is told. A movement, a switch and a loud bang later, the shadows disappear. Moore takes another sip of water.
It must be said that this woman from 61 years old has not asked for nor does he need artificial light. This is a woman who was built in a movie star factory 40 years ago, which gives her an almost supernatural ability to appear illuminated from within. It also gives it a slight character mysterious. Moore has always been so famous, so photographed and so discussed – and that’s before mentioning culture-shaking works like Ghost – The shadow of love, Indecent proposal and Question of honor- that one is forced to do a double take in his presence. Yes, it’s her, you find yourself thinking. Oh my god…really It’s her.
The French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat I knew I needed a woman like Moore to The substance would work: someone who had not only known fame intimately, but someone who could accurately embody its volubility. Few can speak better about the dizzying ups and downs of fame than Moore, whose body, sex life and sky-high salaries have given as much buzz as her films. “I had to find an actress who symbolize stardom”says Fargeat. “Someone who knows what it’s like to receive love from the people who look at you, but who also knows what it’s like to lose those eyes.”
In a very metatextual casting, Moore plays Elisabeth, a fading movie star and fitness guru who is expelled of his successful exercise program after turning 50. Desperate, she agrees to participate in a surreal experiment: If she injects herself with the mysterious toxin of the film’s title, a younger, brighter version of herself (who calls herself Sue and is played by a disturbing Margaret Qualley poreless) will literally come out of your body.
The experiment requires both women to swap places every seven days, but the agreement between them quickly breaks down. Sue craves the attention and success that is inevitably thrust upon her. Elisabeth, for her part, begins to erode physically. The result is one of the biggest cinematic talking points of 2024, a sticky, grimy, shiny meat fest like the day Eric Prydz’s “Call on Me” video with added intestines and rotting skin. I’ve seen it twice and I’m still not sure it’s any good, but its ambition is undeniable, along with the disturbing brilliance of its two main interpretations.
“On paper, This could have been a disaster,” Moore says, laughing. She’s wearing a knee-length polka-dot dress, her hair black as coal, her face tense but warm. At his side is Qualley, 29, dressed in a cyborgian leather jumpsuit. Moore speaks in a husky, forceful voice, skirting many of the obvious parallels between her and Elisabeth. Qualley, from the series Netflix Maid and memorable supporting roles in poor creatures y Once upon a time… in Hollywood, is the quieter of the two, possibly because she is jet-lagged, possibly because The Substance – both in content and in the conversation about it – is very similar to The Demi Show. Still, the couple stayed together during filming.
“We create a real feeling of security”Moore recalls. “Even when we weren’t in scenes together, we were often together on set: it was comforting to know that we had each other.” As far as nudes are concerned, The substance This is not the first time that Moore or Qualley have faced a detour, but here their naked scenes are especially frank and exposed: Qualley is asked to play a character who gleefully participates in his own sexual exploitation, while Moore’s nude scenes are ravishingly clinics. At one point, he stands in front of his bathroom mirror under garish white lights, glancing hatefully at his sixties. At least, Hollywood’s 60-somethings. “It’s not a glamorous role,” Moore says. “I knew I had to be vulnerable and raw.” She and Qualley look at each other, grateful. “We held hands as we walked through the fire,” adds Qualley.
Moore has received well-deserved praise for his work on The substance: the magazine New York rated it as “the best performance of his career.” But it’s also not as radical a change as some media outlets insist it is. Yes, many of Moore’s most famous roles have been clearly commercial endeavors, but risk has been present in her career much more than one might at first think. Remember the (unfairly) criticized To the limit, in which shaved his head and underwent arduous military training? Or how he followed the elegant fantasy of Ghost playing an office assassin in Deadly thoughts? How did he almost admirably get the wrong character in an adaptation of The scarlet letter? In the peak of his fame in the nineties, Moore used to choose risky and dangerous roles, roles that – whether they worked or not – always put a bullet in his back.
“He’s done things like that his entire career,” Qualley says. “But for me, To the limit It’s the best.” Moore herself she is reluctant to look back and complain. “Maybe everything has to find its right moment,” he suggests. “But To the limit It certainly wasn’t appreciated, and in fact it really holds up if you look at it today.”
Fargeat admits that he didn’t realize the extent of Moore’s pioneering work until reading his 2019 memoir, Inside Out. “She was very feminist and she was ahead of her time and took really bold decisions,” says. “It was a facet of his personality that I didn’t know. He has that iconic status, but also that toughness, that risk-taking state of mind.” That said, I didn’t expect Moore to be interested in the role. “When her name was first proposed, I doubted she would want to do it. I knew it would be a very delicate thing for an actress. I’m asking someone to face their own phobias, You know?”.
“I felt like it found me,” says Moore, who has a slight tendency to speak in opaque, therapeutic terms. “I’m not Elisabeth, but I was able to find pieces of her that connected with me, and I knew that if I tried it for a few months and went on this journey with it, it would lead to something bigger for me.”
Fargeat believes Moore was predestined to do The substance at this specific moment. In Inside Out, Moore wrote, in often harrowing detail, about the sexual abuse that she suffered in her childhood, her struggles with addiction and the pain of divorce in the spotlight: she was married to Bruce Willis, with whom he has three daughters, from 1987 to 2000, and later with Ashton Kutcher from 2005 to 2013. “She has been through a lot and has worked a lot on herself to overcome the violence of her past and return to feel good about yourself. “He has gained the strength to face all those things.”
And Inside Out was a exorcism from Moore’s story, The substance It is a surprising step towards its possible future. To begin with, it has been worth rumors about a possible Oscar, something unprecedented for her. But he also believes that it has helped him in other ways. In some of the most painful segments of Inside Out, Moore wrote about her own body, her experiences with eating disorders and how he spent much of his film career obsessed with her weight. However, working on The substance It was different.
“I came away from the experience with a certain feeling of release inside,” Moore says. “I knew there were going to be shots that highlighted my flaws, but those allowed me to find acceptance and appreciation in myself.” She shakes her head. “It was about surrender. “I had to let go of any part of me that valued perfection.”
I ask him how that process is going. “It’s on,” he laughs softly. “But I’m getting better.”
I believe him. They didn’t really seem to care about those shadows.
* Of The Independent of Great Britain. Special for Page/12.
A remake of “Ghost”?
In 1990, Ghost, the shadow of love It began to become one of the most notable romantic films of the entire decade. Directed by Jerry Zucker, the tragic story of Molly (Moore) and Sam (Patrick Swayze) caused torrents of tears, won two Oscars (to supporting actress Whoopi Goldberg and the original script by Joel Rubin) and left a trend of “Demi hairstyle” that ended up installing her as a Hollywood reference.
In the case of such an iconic film, it is at least curious that someone has considered the possibility of a remake. But that is the actor’s project Channing Tatum, who has already expressed his intention to film it again with himself as producer and assuming the role of Sam. In an interview with the specialized media Variety, Moore made his position on the matter very clear: “There are movies that are better left alone, although it depends on the approach you take,” he said. “There is something comforting in the film, which is about the things that we might perceive as lost and that never really leave us. But the success of Ghost has to do with the alchemy. Consider Whoopi, who nails the comedic tone magically. EITHER Tony Goldwyn, the boy next door who is the most unexpected villain. And the sweetness and virility of Patrick Swayze. Channing is incredibly smart and talented: “Who knows what he would contribute if that were the case.”