“Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me I was a ‘popcorn actress’,” a tearful Demi Moore told the Golden Globes this month when she picked up the award for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy for her role in Coralie Fargeat’s satirical body horror, The Substance.
You might argue the movie was really more of a drama – regardless, Moore’s now dead cert to win the Oscar for her performance as a fading Hollywood star-cum-Quasimodo. The Substance follows Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading movie star who reaches new lows after being sacked from her TV fitness show. Desperate to cling to her youthful looks, Sparkle turns to an illicit drug called The Substance, which comes at a deadly cost.
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The ensuing chaos is a gnarly, Dorian Gray-style fable for the Ozempic generation – but it’s also a story close to home for its leading lady. Moore burst onto US screens in the 1981 soap opera, General Hospital, and quickly became one of the 1980s and 1990s most recognisable stars with hits including Ghost, Indecent Proposal and A Few Good Men.
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But her critical acclaim waned in the late 90s, starring in a run of commercial duds, like 1995’s The Scarlet Letter. Although in 1996, she became the highest paid actress in history, taking home $12.5 million for Striptease, it became one of the biggest flops of the decade.
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Into the 2000s, and Moore had gained the reputation as a “bad movie” actress, featuring in a run of duds from Passion of Minds (2000) to Half Light (2006). A retreat from acting coincided with high profile bust ups with long term husband Bruce Willis in 2000 – and later Ashton Kutcher in 2013 – leading to constant attention from tabloid press. She became relegated to the status of a celebrity, known for her looks and relationships more than her acting chops.
