Early critics have said that Demi Moore’s new body horror The Substance makes for difficult viewing – and the woman herself has said it was no walk in the park to shoot, either.
The Ghost actor takes the lead in Coralie Fargeat’s new film, which centres around a fading Hollywood star who uses an illicit substance to create a younger duplicate of herself.
After the film’s premiere at Cannes, critics highlighted graphic violence and nudity featured in The Substance, with Demi disclosing in a new interview that the shoot really took it out of her.
“To give you an idea of the intensity, my first week that I actually had off, where it was just Margaret [Qualley, who plays Demi’s younger counterpart] working, I got shingles,” she told the LA Times.
“And I then lost, like, 20 pounds.”
Margaret Qualley experienced physical side effects of her own from the film, disclosing that she “had crazy acne for a full, long-ass time” afterwards.
At a Cannes press conference in May, Demi recalled that shooting the film’s more challenging scenes was a “vulnerable” experience.
“[It] just required, I think, going into it with a sensitivity and a lot of conversation,” she explained. “I think finding that common ground of mutual trust [helps].”
Demi continued: “I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with. We obviously were quite close in certain moments, naked, and it allowed us also a lot of levity … at how absurd those certain situations were, with us lying on the tile floor.”
The Substance hits UK cinemas on Friday 20 September.
