Demi Moore reaches for gold with her most shocking role: 'The Substance'

After more than 60 productions over a career of 40 years, actress Demi Moore took a big risk with the horror movie 'The Substance.'

Photo: The Substance / Cannes Film Festival

And the risk paid off! Even though horror movies don't tend to do well in awards competitions, Demi Moore got a Golden Globe for her leading role in 'The Substance' and was nominated for an Oscar, too.

The actress was very emotional when she received her Golden Globe because she'd long ago been told that an award like that would never be in the realm of possibilities for her. "I had a producer tell me that I was a 'popcorn actress' and, at that time, I made that mean that this [award] wasn't something that I was allowed to have."

Well, for this movie, you may want to skip the popcorn, because it's very graphic and bloody.

Moore plays an actress of her own age, Elisabeth Sparkle, who wants to be young again. A mysterious 'substance' helps her in that pursuit, but it also 'splits' her body into two!

In this film, by French director Coralie Fargeat (l), Demi Moore takes her character to the extreme.

She gets an alter ego that is younger and more attractive. This version of her is played by Margaret Qualley, one of today's rising Hollywood actresses.

For Demi Moore, 'The Substance' allows her to play an extreme role. Several scenes are so complicated and uncomfortable to watch that viewers have stated they will never forget them.

Without saying too much, the scene in which Moore's character applies the infamous substance, has plenty of needles, tubes, vials, blood, and gunshots. It is so specific that it is impossible not to feel more than a shiver in the process.

Photo: The Substance / Cannes Film Festival

Seeing how Margaret Qualley emerges from Demi Moore's spine and crawls towards her own existence among fluids of all kinds, and knowing that this is not even the most extreme scene in the film, testifies to the visual spectacle of Coralie Fargeat's movie.

Photo: The Substance / Cannes Film Festival

The film denounces the stereotypes that govern the perception of women on television and the beauty canons established by male scrutiny. Its tone is taken to a much rougher terrain than what we are used to.

It is shocking to see Demi Moore in that position. Perhaps for that reason, it is much more satisfying to see the body terror to which she subjects her own character.

Her Elisabeth Sparkle is one of those characters that define a career. It highlights what she has done previously, and, over time, it may become a cult element of her filmography. Especially when she's awarded for the role!

In recent years, people may have thought that Demi Moore had retired from film and TV - at least for a while. But then, she stormed the big screens with this fascinating project after all.

"As I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called 'The Substance," she told the audience at the Golden Globes gala. "And the universe told me that you're not done."