Demi Moore has resided at her current house since 2005. “It’s had some interesting incarnations,” she told me. “It was a house with three kids, and now it’s just me and my silly pack of dogs.”
Moore doesn’t seem like a grandma who lives alone, but here she is, performing what some consider to be her greatest work yet. Her latest film, “The Substance,” is about an elderly TV personality who discovers a sinister-looking elixir that might transform her into a younger, more perfect version of herself, but at a horrible cost.
“I put so much pressure on myself,” she stated, referring to the significance she previously placed on her appearance. “I have encountered situations where people have advised me to lose weight.” All of these experiences, despite being uncomfortable and humiliating, are the result of the actions I took towards myself.”
Click on the video player below to view a trailer for “The Substance.”
For example, when filming 1993’s “Indecent Proposal,” she would ride a bike from her Malibu home to Paramount Studios in Hollywood every day, a distance of around 30 miles each way.
She was breastfeeding a child at the time: “I believe she was around five or six months old when we shot it.” So I was feeding her through the night, waking up in the dark with a trainer and a headlight, riding all the way to Paramount or wherever we were filming, then shooting a whole day, which is normally a 12-hour day, and then beginning again. Even the thought of what I did to my body is insane, ludicrous.”
However, she clarified that she thought it aligned with the expectations placed on her during that period: “Yes. But you look back and wonder, ‘Did it really mean that much?’ Probably not. But at the moment, I made it mean everything.
Moore has been in the spotlight since the 1980s as a skilled but unstable member of Hollywood’s “Brat Pack.” She shined on screen in films such as “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “About Last Night.” Off-screen, she struggled with her self-esteem. “I just have a lot of compassion for what a scared little girl I actually really was, even though I didn’t let anybody see that,” she told me. “And if I could go back, I’d hug her and say, ‘It’s fine. “It’s okay.”
Moore went on to become the highest-paid woman in the company, and she influenced other women as well. When she received a record $12.5 million for the 1996 film “Striptease,” other women in Hollywood requested and received larger payments as well.
She also questioned whether a 40-year-old woman should wear a bikini and, after shaving her head for 1997’s “G.I. Jane,” how long a woman’s hair should be at a particular age.
At 61, her hair reaches her waist. “After I shaved my head, I think I just started to let my hair grow with the idea that you can have long hair if that’s what you want,” Moore told me. “Who says it’s not OK? And I’ve heard it several times. If I didn’t like the way I looked, I’d cut it.
In “The Substance,” she once again asks why we think the way we do.
In one scene, as her character is going on a date, she looks in the mirror, applies makeup, and then purposefully smears it. She stated filming the sequence was challenging. “Emotionally, I believe many of us have been in situations where we wanted to improve something. “And then we just keep making it worse,” she explained. “For me, it’s one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the entire film. It took at least 15 attempts each time. So, in the end, my face was raw.
After such a day, what will happen to her? ” You’ll fall apart. “You just go fall into your bed!” she said, laughing.
Smith was curious: “For you personally, today, when you look in the mirror, what do you think?”
“Uhm, it fluctuates,” Moore remarked. “Some days, I look and think, Wow,” Moore said. That is pretty excellent. On some days, I find myself overanalyzing and hyper-focusing on things I dislike. The difference is that I can now catch myself. I may say, “Yes, I don’t like that loose skin.” But, you know, it is what it is. So I’ll maximize what is instead of pursuing what isn’t.
Smith was asked, “Give me an example of that, something you chased but lost now.”
“I used to think my face was overweight.” I have no angles. I have nothing. And then you say, “Yeah, but now it’s loose!” I wouldn’t mind getting some of that chubbiness back, in the proper areas!”
Moore has three adult children with her ex-husband, Bruce Willis, who suffers from dementia. She claims that while she is in town, she tries to visit every week. “Meeting him where he is is more important than clinging to his past. Once more, it merely immerses you in a state of sorrow instead of embracing the present, meeting him at his current location, and discovering joy and affection in everything that he embodies.”
Demi Moore appears to have achieved peace with the things over which she has little control—knowledge and freedom that, if we’re fortunate enough, come naturally in a long and eventful life.
“I think that I’m sitting in a different place in my life than I’ve ever been,” she told me. “I am the most autonomous. My kids are grown. I have the greatest independence I have ever had. So I’m simply trying to focus on what truly brings me joy. I don’t enjoy projecting and saying, ‘Well, this is where I want to go,’ because I’m not sure. I don’t know where I’ll be. But I know this is a chance for me to have a wonderful time!”