Demi Moore’s surprise victory at Sunday night’s Golden Globes was undoubtedly a highlight of the ceremony.
The star of The Substance faced stiff competition in her category from Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo, Emilia Pérez’s Karla Sofía Gascón and Anora’s Mikey Madison, all of whom have been named early favourites to pick up the Oscar for Best Actress later this year.
However, in the end it was Demi who scooped one of the night’s top awards – marking her first major awards win in a career that has spanned almost 50 years.
And clearly, the significance of the moment was not lost on the woman herself.
“I’ve been doing this a long time – like, over 45 years – and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor,” she told the stars in attendance. “And I’m just so humbled and so grateful.”
She recalled: “Thirty years ago I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn actress’. And, at that time, I made that mean that this [award] wasn’t something that I was allowed to have. I could make movies that were successful and made a lot of money, but I couldn’t be acknowledged, and I bought in and I believed that.”
Demi admitted that this thought process “corroded me over time” to the point where even “a few years ago” she thought to herself: “Maybe this [is] it. Maybe I’ve done what I was supposed to do.”
But at this “low point”, the Ghost actor received the “magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers” script for the graphic body horror The Substance, which wound up earning Demi some of the best reviews of her career upon its release last year.
Wrapping up her speech by thanking those who believed in her “even when I didn’t believe in myself”, Demi added: “In those moments when you don’t think you’re smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough – or basically just not enough… I had a woman say to me, ‘just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick’.
“And so today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me, and for the gift of doing something I love, and being reminded that I do belong.”
Demi had previously been nominated for Golden Globes on two separate occasions, for the film Ghost and the TV movie If These Walls Could Talk.
She’s now expected to pick up a nomination at the Oscars when the shortlist is announced next week.
