Demi Moore sits down to talk about her film 'The Substance' at the Variety Studio at TIFF.
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00:00I looked at this one as like this really was so out-of-the-box, so unique way of
00:08delving into the subject matter that if it worked it would be absolutely
00:16incredible and amazing. And yes, it could also be an absolute disaster.
00:30So The Substance has really taken hold of people when it premiered at Cannes and
00:48now at TIFF. I wonder when you when you read a script for something like this is
00:52it is it hard to kind of anticipate the reaction to that the film is going to
00:56receive? I mean I don't think you you ever know you can only kind of explore
01:04it with the hopes that it'll resonate and in this case the script the read was
01:10as wild as the experience is of seeing the film but obviously probably much
01:17more because it's now visual and in-your-face. I think you know I looked
01:24at this one as like this really was so out-of-the-box, so unique way of delving
01:33into the subject matter that if it worked it would be absolutely
01:40incredible and amazing. And yes, it could also be an absolute disaster. When when
01:51you were approached to do the film what was your familiarity with the body
01:54horror genre? In complete transparency I was not really familiar at all. I feel
02:01like I don't even know if I could have said to you oh yes this absolutely fits
02:05that genre. I didn't I didn't know. So this this was new and it was presented
02:12saying this is a phantasmagoric. I'd never even heard that expression. So when
02:20you actually started to kind of get into to prepare for the role what was
02:26that like? What what what did you do to sort of get ready to play this character
02:29to play Elizabeth? You know what was interesting is obviously if you've seen
02:34the film it's it's there isn't a lot of dialogue and so for me a lot of the prep
02:41had to do with really giving Elizabeth as full of a life as possible so that in
02:49every moment I I could feel present and alive to who she was what she was going
02:56through. And not that you don't do that on every role but in this case because
03:02so much had to come through just through you know the subtleties of of the eyes
03:10and the you know simple expressions. It also seems like it was a very physically
03:17demanding role and I wonder like what was it like to kind of do these
03:22transformation sequences and how did you prepare for those? Somehow did you
03:26notice how I just kind of like didn't even grapple with that as part of it?
03:30Yes you know even before we started we had to do the molding the the molds to
03:39do it. You know the nice thing about which because it is extremely
03:46challenging of sitting through the process of the application which was
03:51anywhere for me from six to nine and a half hours is that it does lend itself
03:57to helping you move into a whole different body a whole different kind of
04:04relationship with self and some of it was kind of finding the body as we went
04:10along. And also because it's very different than say I'm just playing
04:15someone in just old age makeup. It had a whole other layer of kind of trauma
04:25shock because it was happening in this way that was so beyond her control. Did
04:32you work with movement coaches at all? I did a little bit but it was
04:37something that didn't really come into play until we were actually already
04:40shooting. So I really only had someone to work with over Zoom and some of that
04:49was really almost more about being careful not to hurt myself because I
04:58spent a lot of time in a hunched over position. There was a lot of the
05:03physicality and you know we had the heightened reality which gave us
05:08permission to do things that somebody who in fact was just had aged to that
05:13degree wouldn't be able to do. Like I have some pretty high speed runs. And
05:20what about working with Margaret Qualley? Had you known her before you did this
05:24film and how did you kind of figure out that relationship too? You know we hadn't
05:28ever met before but interestingly I felt I think we both felt like we did know
05:35each other from the moment that we met. I mean we had these indirect connections.
05:40Obviously years and years ago I had worked and knew her mother. She knew my
05:46daughters and I think that we have some shared qualities. I think that we both
05:53are willing to do roles where you kind of get a little dirty and I think with
06:00very little conversation or dialogue that we just connected. And I think
06:09it was a really crucial and important part of the whole process because it was
06:13really you know physically demanding for both of us and you know we were there
06:20all in five and a half months working on this. But from the moment that I
06:27heard that that's who Qualley was interested in casting I was already
06:31excited because I I knew that she was moving towards a real depth because
06:38Margaret is a wonderful actor who always brings kind of deep kind of
06:46emotional value, interest, intrigue. So yeah we got on I would say like a house
06:52on fire. In making this movie did it did you ever did it sort of lead you to to
07:00reconsider or think about your own experiences in the entertainment
07:02industry or to kind of think about how that how would it have been to kind of
07:06navigate this business? I think I didn't really think of it in relation to
07:12myself. I feel like I could relate to it in some respects more from actually my
07:17younger years and but I knew how important this subject and how relevant
07:29this subject matter was. Not just for women but you know particularly for
07:36women but I think for all of us as human beings because this delved into not just
07:42what the circumstances or the societal conditioning is that in a way that
07:46collective consciousness that should been shared about it women and their
07:52value diminishing as they age because it for me what was so powerful in this is
07:59what it is that we do to ourselves. It's that idea of you know what someone does
08:07or doesn't do is irrelevant but how you hold it is everything and I felt like
08:12in the whole arc for Elizabeth is that it was all this incredible value that
08:17she was giving to everything external and and how she then internalized it and
08:24in the way that Coralie created a physical manifestation of that violence
08:30that we can have against ourselves. I thought would be my hope was that it
08:34it would be impactful and really resonate. Have you found since this movie
08:39has been on the festival circuit and it's about to go into the wider world
08:42have people approached you and talked to you about the impact that the movie has
08:46had on them? I mean I've definitely I you know I've been so humbled and really
08:53and in and and equally uplifted by how deeply this has resonated with people
09:03and you know as it was we started the conversation you you never know and
09:09because this film goes to such a crazy place there was a part where I wasn't
09:16sure is that gonna take away is it gonna and and the fact that it that aspect of
09:22the movie brought relief and that it's impacted people you know my hope is that
09:26it would bring a cultural shift that it would be part of the conversation that
09:30starts to move the needle in allowing us to see the importance of being more
09:36gentle more kind to ourselves and just to look at how much value are we placing
09:43on how how we look how we're perceived especially over how we feel about
09:51ourselves. There have been reports of a sequel to St. Elmo's Fire and I wonder
09:56what's the latest with that? Yeah so the update is definitely conversations are
10:03happening studio has been really behind driving this as far as I know everyone
10:10seems to be up for it which I think would be amazing and no script yet but
10:18looking for the right right partner I think to write that and then I think we
10:24would all probably start to jump in and figure out who are these people this
10:28many years later and it was such a pivotal film for all of us involved and
10:36I having participated with Andrew McCarthy on his on his doc sat on a
10:43panel where I got to see Ali Chidi who I hadn't seen in 30 years I it would be a
10:49real joy. Well Timmy thank you so much congratulations.