This year, with her newest film, The Substance, marks the long-overdue comeback of one of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses, Demi Moore.

For, while recently featuring in TV series, Feud: Capote vs. the Swans and Landman, it is her starring role in body horror flick, The Substance that has cemented her triumphant return – receiving an 11-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film festival premiere.

Once one of the highest paid actresses of her generation, she rose to fame in the 80s with films St. Elmo’s Fire and About Last Night, later catapulting to superstardom with box-office hits Ghost, A Few Good Men and Indecent Proposal.

Married to Bruce Willis – with whom she has three now adult daughters – they were the “it” couple of the 90s until their divorce. Later wed to Ashton Kutcher, they divorced in 2012 and Moore largely faded from the spotlight, focusing on her family.

She marks her splashy return with The Substance, a gory dark comedy that surely addresses aging with attitude — and Moore, 62, has plenty to say about that:

Q: The Substance is inspired by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s own experience of turning 40, noticing how women of a certain age are no longer valued, appreciated or noticed. What made you want to take on the role of Elizabeth Sparkle, a fitness guru who feels like her life is over after she turns 50 and is sacked from her daily TV show?

DEMI: My agent sent me the script, and said: I don’t want to tell you anything about it. I think you just need to read it, and then let’s talk about it. And once I read it, I fully understood – the challenge of even trying to describe it. But I loved it. And it’s a personal story for Coralie. I think in many respects, Elizabeth is Coralie, and Margaret Qualley’s character, Sue, is the girl that she experienced at that time who she was pitted against. So there were aspects that really struck me deeply.

Q: Did you hesitate before agreeing to the role?

DEMI: In this case, when you recognize something that scares you in just that right way. And when I say ‘scare you,’ I think fear is an incredible reflection of information. It tells us when we’re in danger, and it also tells us when something taps into the type of fear that you know is a vulnerability. It’s something that’s pushing you to step out of your comfort zone. So in my knowing, I knew that – if she felt I was right – that I was going to say yes.

Q: Your 2019 memoir, Inside Out, also helped clinch the role?

DEMI: In my memoir, I talk a lot about my own experience with really being in a lot of judgment of myself and my body, and in placing too much value in how my body looked. As if that was who I was. And in fact, I met with Coralie six times before she offered this to me. This was so personal to her that I think she was really just trying to make sure that the actors that she chose really understood it. And at a certain point, I realized there’s nothing I could say to her that would give her that reassurance. And so I gave her my book, and she said: That’s what made the difference in her knowing that I had walked through that.

Q: Did you relate to Elizabeth Sparkle’s experience?

DEMI: Even though I don’t feel like I am Elizabeth – I mean, she has no family, no friends, no life but her work – I totally understood her, and I related very deeply. The impact of the value system she was placing on everything in her life really resonated.

Q: Did you have any concerns?

DEMI: Well, when I read this, I really thought: Okay, this could be amazing, but it could also be a f***ing disaster! Because conceptually, you’re introducing so many elements. I mean, it had such a depth of vulnerability and honesty dealing with this subject matter that I think is really an important one, but then it opened up into three gallons of blood being sprayed! And I just didn’t know.

Q: And you were very courageous to agree to so much nudity and close-ups?

DEMI: She often started entire scenes this close [she says, demonstrating how close the camera was]….not an actress favorite! Not that I was crazy about the ass shot of me, but I appreciate the importance of what it’s serving in the film!

Q: What scene were you most nervous about it?

DEMI: It was really about opening up myself to the most vulnerable, raw place, physically and emotionally, and just what that was going to take and being exposed with cameras up my nose. There’s always a certain level of vanity in that of kind of knowing that you’re sharing that part of your self that we sometimes don’t necessarily want everyone to see. But it allowed me to let go a little bit more of the judgments that I hold against myself, the dissecting that I can do.

Q: No plot spoilers – but you and Margaret Qualley are playing the same person in a way. How did you get along?

DEMI: I adore her. I love her. It was a joy working with her. And when Coralie spoke to me about who she was considering, it also gave me an incredible reassurance, because I knew, from the get go, that she wasn’t looking just to find somebody who had a look on the outside. The amazing thing for Margaret and I, is I worked with her mother [Andie MacDowell] on one of my first films, St. Elmo’s Fire, and she knows my daughters. And so the first time we met in person, I think we felt already that we had a connection. So I think we both jump in feet first. We’re not afraid to get messy or dirty.

Q: Do you think the film will change hearts and mind about aging and all the things we are so hard on ourselves about?

DEMI: The beauty is that it almost brings you some relief, so that you have a little bit of room to kind of process the deeper message, which is, for me, the importance of not wasting time focusing on all that you’re not when you could be celebrating the beauty of all that you are the uniqueness of us as individuals.

Q: And you’ve had some great feedback to that message?

DEMI: I was flying to New York recently and a young male flight attendant came by and said: I just saw your film, and I have to say, it really changed how I was approaching myself, and I realized I needed to be kinder. I was doing all this crazy stuff and dieting, and I realized I just needed to stop and be nicer. And for me, that’s what I’m talking about. I don’t expect this to be an overnight cultural shift, but it is the idea that we could be a part of putting down a few pieces of the pavement that is bringing about a shift, and that shift has to come not from the outside, but it has to come from within each of us.

Q: And your prosthetics were intense, aging you at least 50 years!

DEMI: Some days I sat through nine and a half hours of prosthetics…

Q: What’s been your reaction to all the praise for your role?

DEMI: You know, it’s just nice. I think it’s so important to keep right sized, stay present and in appreciation and just in the joy, really in the joy. And know that a career is not up. It’s not one thing. It’s a journey. And so it’s being in the ride of it, and not making it too much, but also not making it too little.

PIC CREDIT: Courtesy of MUBI

Gill Pringle began her career as a rock columnist for popular British newspapers, traveling the world with Madonna, U2 and Michael Jackson. Moving to Los Angeles 27 years ago, she interviews film and TV personalities for prestigious UK outlets, The Independent, The i-paper and The Sunday Times – and, of course, Senior Planet. A member of Critics Choice Association, BAFTA and AWFJ, she wrote the screenplay for 2016 Netflix family film, The 3 Tails Movie: A Mermaid Adventure. An award-winning writer, in 2021 she was honored by the Los Angeles Press Club with 1st prize at the NAEJ Awards.