DESPITE starring in some of the biggest films of the Nineties, Hollywood A-lister Demi Moore spent two decades feeling there was no longer a place for her in the industry.
The original Brat Pack girl, who was one of the most sought-after actresses in her 20s and 30s, struggled after facing scrutiny for a bikini-clad scene in 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle when she was 40.
Now the 61-year-old actress is back in horror movie The Substance, which has stunned viewers with its shocking blood, gore and nudity.
The film, about a woman who undergoes a grotesque transformation in her quest to appear youthful, won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received an 11-minute standing ovation.
It is now being tipped for an Oscar.
This week Demi has been in London for the first UK screening of the film, which has been described as “absolutely insane” and “as out-there as it gets”.
The actress admits she took a risk making the story about society’s obsession with youth, but it looks set to pay off because critics say it includes “the performance of Demi’s career”.
She said: “The Substance is about this male perspective of the idealised woman that we as women have bought into.
“Not what somebody’s doing to us, but what we bought into.
“And I think we are changing right now. We are living the change right now.”
Few actresses understand the demand to look “perfect” better than Demi.
In order to fit in with glamour-obsessed Hollywood, she is rumoured to have undergone £250,000 of surgery, including having breast implants and her nose straightened.
‘The film is addressing feelings of rejection and lack of place and belonging, things we all experience. My transformation is not glamorous, I’ll just warn you’
Demi Moore on new film
There are also reports she had sagging skin removed from her knees.
Having made her name in St Elmo’s Fire in 1985, she starred in 1990’s smash hit Ghost and 1993’s racy thriller Indecent Proposal.
But critics panned 1996’s Striptease, for which she was paid £10million, a then-record for an actress, which led to her being cruelly nicknamed Gimme Moore.
And she was given a Razzie Worst Actress award for G.I. Jane a year later.
This one is a genre that’s not as familiar for me. They all have to have a little bit of that fear of, ‘Can I deliver?’ and, ‘Is it saying something that will make a difference?’
Demi on new horror movie The Substance
Demi defends the 1997 action drama, in which she plays a US Navy Seal, as too far ahead of its time, and said: “It’s a film that I felt got overshadowed by me becoming the highest-paid actress at that time.”
She has described appearing in horror The Substance as almost as “terrifying” as Striptease, where she played a secretary turned stripper.
Demi said: “This one is a genre that’s not as familiar for me. They all have to have a little bit of that fear of, ‘Can I deliver?’ and, ‘Is it saying something that will make a difference?’.”
Demi knows all about Hollywood turning its back on older actresses.
In a chat this week with actress Michelle Yeoh for Interview magazine, she told how she felt the industry shunned her after she faced lots of scrutiny over her body when she appeared in the 2003 Charlie’s Angels film.
She said: “There was a lot of conversation around this scene in a bikini. And then I found that there didn’t seem to be a place for me.”
Since that movie, Demi has largely appeared in smaller-budget productions.
That sense of being cast aside because of no longer being “attractive enough” to the entertainment industry’s male bosses is central to The Substance.
Demi said: “It’s addressing feelings of rejection and lack of place and belonging and things I think we all experience.”
The actress has suffered several personal setbacks during her rollercoaster career — and is long overdue a chance to prove herself again.
Her biological father Charles left her mother Virginia before Demi was even born. And her stepfather committed suicide in 1980.
She recalled: “I had an unusual childhood. How did I get here? Because on paper it doesn’t make sense.
“I have no education, I have no background, I was on my own at 16.”
In her autobiography Inside Out, published five years ago, Demi revealed that she had taken cocaine and talked about the struggles in her three marriages.
She claimed second husband, Die Hard star Bruce Willis, 69, who she was married to from 1987 to 2000, wanted her to stay at home more with their daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. At first she resisted, turning up eight months pregnant for her audition with Tom Cruise in 1992’s A Few Good Men.
Demi recalled: “I had to go in with a big belly, which I think Tom was feeling quite embarrassed about.”
But as Bruce’s career took off and hers hit setbacks, she spent more time at home.
Demi said: “I didn’t work for about six years and I just stayed home with my kids.”
In Inside Out she also alleges that third husband, Ashton Kutcher, 46, cheated on her. The couple ended their eight-year marriage in 2013.
Demi is still close to Bruce, who is no longer able to speak due to a rare brain disorder called aphasia.
On Bruce’s birthday in March, Demi shared a photo on Instagram of her tenderly holding his hand and elbow at his home.
Demi is currently believed to be single after dating chef Daniel Humm in 2022 for a few months.
I had someone who was a great partner in Margaret Qualley who I felt very safe with and we were obviously quite close in certain moments naked.
Demi on nudity in new film
Now she is clearly enjoying her resurgence in a film so gory that she joked the director needed a “firehose” for all the fake blood coming out of her character’s body.
But she felt safe stripping off for a clinch with co-star Margaret Qualley, 29, daughter of Four Weddings And A Funeral actress Andie MacDowell.
Demi said: “I had someone who was a great partner in Margaret Qualley who I felt very safe with and we were obviously quite close in certain moments naked.
‘There was a lot of levity about how absurd those situations were, with us lying on the tiled floor.
“Ultimately, it’s about communication and mutual trust.
“I saw it as a challenge in the best way as I look for things that push me out of my comfort zone.”
In The Substance, which is released here on September 20, she plays aerobics star Elisabeth Sparkle, who has been told she is past it at the age of 50.
The character will do anything to get her youthful looks back, including taking an experimental serum that turns her into a youthful version of herself, played by Qualley.
But it has some very nasty side-effects, which makes her body change in disturbing ways.
The prosthetics needed to transform Demi for her role required up to eight hours in the make-up chair.
She revealed: “It definitely seems easier on paper than sitting in the chair for eight hours.
“And when you see it, the transformation that takes place is really dramatic. It’s not glamorous, I’ll just warn you.”
Demi can currently be seen in star-studded series Feud on Disney+ and will appear in oil industry drama Landman alongside Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm this autumn.
Hamm plays her husband and Demi said, laughing: “I thought we looked quite good together.”
Now a grandmother, Demi thinks that attitudes to women are finally improving within showbusiness and the wider world.
And after four decades in the movie industry, she knows that trying to look perfect is the wrong approach to life.
She concluded: “What would I tell my 16 or 17-year-old self?
“That your value isn’t on the outside, it’s on who you are on the inside. And that there’s no such thing as perfect.”
