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She starred in “The Substance,” a body horror-satire that isn’t normally academy fare. But it earned her some of the best reviews of her career.
Jan. 23, 2025Updated 9:12 a.m. ET
Since Demi Moore arrived on screens as a teenager in a soap opera in 1981, she has achieved megastardom, amassed a fortune — she was once the highest-paid actress in the world — and been a lighting rod for fierce (and often critical) conversations about women’s bodies. On Thursday, at 62, she notched her first Oscar nomination, for best actress for her turn in “The Substance,” the body horror-satire with a feminist message. It’s a once-unexpected milestone for a woman whom a producer had derided as “a popcorn actress.”
Moore’s role as a fading celebrity seeking a shortcut to youth has earned her some of the best reviews of her career, and a Golden Globe win that undoubtedly propelled her chances with the academy, especially when she gave an emotional barnburner of a speech. Visibly shocked at the ceremony earlier this month, she noted that she had been in the business for more than four decades, with few accolades to show for it. The acknowledgment, she said, offered “the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong.”
Moore first made her name with ’80s Brat Pack fare like “St. Elmo’s Fire,” and was nominated for a Globe in 1991, for the blockbuster romance “Ghost.” Hits like “Indecent Proposal” and “Striptease,” which gave her what was then a record $12.5 million paycheck, along with her marriage to fellow star Bruce Willis, made her a Hollywood phenomenon in the ’90s.
But the perception of her as merely a commercial performer, symbolized by the producer’s comment, “corroded me over time,” she said at the Globes. She had thought perhaps she was done with acting, but what she called “the magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script” for “The Substance” pulled her back in.
The brashly bloody “The Substance,” from the French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, was an unlikely Oscar contender; academy voters don’t tend to go for gore. But this year was an exception: The movie is in the running for best picture, while Fargeat also scored nominations for best director and screenplay.
