Demi Moore Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Ghost' to 'The Substance'

Physically, one of the hardest ones

was when we had the obstacle course sequence.

We have to go over a big wall.

All of the other guys use my back to get over

and then they leave me.

I literally had a boot shaped bruise on my back.

[gentle music]

Hi, I am Demi Moore and this is the timeline of my career.

Nikki...

I love you too.

Prior to being cast in, Blame It on Rio,

living in West Hollywood with my mother,

I had a neighbor, which was Nastassja Kinski.

She spoke English really well,

but didn't feel confident with how she read English.

And so as we became friends, she asked me

to read scripts aloud to her.

It kind of defined my decision

to wanna pursue acting.

The first time I saw her, I felt like

she was just the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

Not just from her external beauty,

but just in how comfortable she was in her own skin.

And I didn't know what it was,

but I wanted what she had.

Right before my 19th birthday,

I got cast in General Hospital,

and that gave me a regular job and a regular paycheck.

I had to ask permission because I auditioned

and got the role in Blame It on Rio,

to play Michael Kane's daughter.

Who can remember everyone she goes out with.

There's more than one?

Well, there's the dancer at the club we were at,

the singer too.

She's seeing all of them?

But you know how it is, Dad.

When you're hot, you're hot.

Obviously I'm a teenager.

It was super exciting.

Big studio movie, shooting on location

in an exotic place I had never been.

The interesting thing is literally

that is not a movie that could be made today.

This is kind of, I don't wanna say

a dirty old man's fantasy, but kind of,

because it's two men going on vacation

with their teenage daughters and the one teenage daughter

having a mad kind of crush on the other father.

And you know, the hijinks that, you know, occurs.

I have been needing to talk to you.

Sounds like one of our infamous conversations is coming.

Like when you met my parents and decided I was adopted.

Remember that?

I still think your mother's hiding something from you.

Yeah, yeah.

Kevin, I'm curious. Mm?

You know all those nights we stayed up talking?

Hm-mm.

How come you never made a pass at me?

I was actually there for the casting of another movie.

It may have even been a John Hughes movie.

I may have been driving a motorcycle.

Joel Schumacher saw me through the window.

He sent his assistant to ask what was my name,

and that was it.

I was then called back in to meet with Joel Schumacher

to audition for Jewels.

Bail me out again.

When are you two gonna get a new car?

One that truly expresses your lifestyle.

Not everyone got recruited out the school

international banking, moneyback.

Besides my mom that gave me that car,

I think I was conceived in the back seat.

It was an exciting time for young actors

and I remember being on this big sound stage,

there being, you know, the craft service

and all of us just kind of saying hello.

Some of them already knew each other

because they had done Breakfast Club.

Particularly I think some of the boys.

Nobody wanted to be called a brat.

It wasn't trendy or popular.

It felt like just that it diminished us

or that we were less serious.

I think that in a way it spurred me to focus

and just keep moving forward,

but just not be attached to it.

Almost as if that wasn't going to define me.

Oh no, I hope it wasn't a masterpiece.

Well, it's not now.

Can I help?

Yeah.

Get wet.

Just let the play slide between your fingers.

On paper, we're looking at a director who's only done comedy

and broad comedy.

Surely you can't be serious.

I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

This conceptually was a comedy, a thriller,

and a romance, and I thought, okay, this could be amazing

or it could really be a disaster.

And that was really exciting.

The subject matter I felt was really moving

and had the potential of really opening a pathway

to a cultural shift in how we, you know, related to death

and loss, but in a way that was also entertaining

and really kind of checked all the boxes.

Saved your life.

You shit. Scared me death.

Why did you do that?

It's better than seeing this gorgeous body

splattered all over the place.

Look out.

He had gone in New York on location

to look at the apartment building

that was gonna be our apartment

that in fact they rebuilt on a stage.

What I felt immediately upon meeting him

was that beautiful combination

of virility and strength, but gentility and sweetness.

And again, you know, I was 25,

we were still really young and early in our careers

and I think we were both just really excited.

It's like, I think about you every minute.

It's like, I can still feel you.

My childhood didn't lend itself to having a lot of places

of being vulnerable and vulnerable at even feeling

like I had the room to cry.

And so when I looked at the emotional demand of this,

it definitely brought up a lot of fear

of would I be able to deliver what it needed?

But again, those are the things

that make you really want to do something.

It gave me time to also indirectly look at processing loss.

I think I had already experienced the loss of my father

but not really experienced it in a way

that also was healing and uplifting.

Never.

All right, he would never do that.

His concern was for me and the kids.

He didn't wanna lose me.

[Detective] Yeah, but for some reason you don't seem

to be trusting him anymore.

I just wanted to keep him out of it.

Keep the peace.

If I look at it at that time, it was kind of the beginning

of what we know today as independent films.

You know, look, I was stepping into something

I didn't know what I was doing

and so I was just kind of learning.

It was juicy, character driven material

and something that was a smaller budget, a little edgier

and not something I feel like I had had a chance

to kind of step into.

It just felt like a wonderful opportunity.

Well, you gotta learn to control your temper.

It's not good how you fly off the handle.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Ain't like I just fly off the handle for no good reason.

Yeah, but you gotta learn to talk, not yell.

I mean, you don't wanna be intimidating everybody.

Well, what was interesting is we obviously

we're a married couple, but we were not playing

a married couple in it.

I don't know if it's that I asked him

to read the script just to see what he thought

and then he said, I'd love to play this guy.

Was kind of one of those things that just rolled,

which wasn't, it's not like we really planned it.

I think that it allowed for a lot of freedom and safety.

In watching him, I learned that he had such an ease

within himself to go to these bigger places

that I feel like I had always been

a lot more kind of contained.

Just watching his spontaneity and there was

a very expansiveness to how he worked,

which was different seeing it working with him

versus just say, going and watching him on a set.

Done something wrong again, haven't I?

I was just wondering why two guys have been locked up

since this morning while the lawyer's outside

hitting a ball.

We need to practice. That wasn't funny.

It was a little funny.

I mean it was such good writing.

The dialogue was so rich Aaron and because he came

out of theater, like there was a real value

to wanting to get the words as they were,

which was different I think, than other things I had.

You're the luckiest man in the world.

There is nothing on this earth sexier, believe me,

gentlemen, than a woman that you have to salute

in the morning.

That was an intense scene because he's really attacking me

as a woman in a way that was undercutting and diminishing,

but a powerful moment in revealing of his character,

my character.

I was working with great actors,

with great material, with a great director.

So there was a certain efficiency.

We didn't have to labor, we didn't have to struggle to find.

It just had to do with just showing up, being prepared

and doing your job.

Suppose I were to offer you $1 million

for one night with your wife.

He'd tell you to go to hell.

I didn't hear him.

I'd tell you to go to hell.

The heart of it was the relationship between this couple

and really this bigger question

of is there a price for everything?

Knowing that there were a lot of love scenes,

the challenge was that it was done not just tasteful,

but appropriate to the relationship

and feeling protective of not wanting it to be exploitive,

but in service to the story.

I just came up with this idea that instead of like going,

we can have this much nipple, we can have this much,

you know, butt, to me that like I made it still feel

so like I would then be showing up

to do scenes but be in my head

and be actually more hyper-focused versus being free

to really be in the emotional exchange.

And so I just ask, you know, for what I feel like

should be a more standard way,

which is let's be true collaborators.

Let's go into this.

I hear what you're looking for, I'm gonna trust you

and I'm gonna ask you to trust me.

And so after you cut it together, let me take a look

and if there's anything that's maybe a little bit too much

and in the end I didn't ask for anything.

What's interesting is in the movie, if you really go

and looked, it isn't extremely nude.

Well, I don't wanna say the things that he,

that Adrian Lyne was saying on the sidelines,

but I was glad that I was given the 411

that he talks over the scenes that he was wring his hands

with the excitement and enthusiasm and sweating

and like, ugh.

Like, you know, and I don't even think he's conscious.

He's just looking at the monitor

and he's like, Oh, yes, grab his hmm.

And you know, okay.

And the first take, I was so shocked,

like, oh my god, what is happening here?

And then I realized everyone was so focused on him

that they weren't even noticing us.

So I was like, okay, that feels a little more relaxed.

But definitely is unlike any experience I've ever had.

It's also so interesting.

I mean he, it is very voyeuristic in his films

and and very sexual.

But I do think that there is a real sensitivity

and a beauty.

All right boy, listen up.

Ready for your med check.

Follow my finger.

All right, follow my finger O'Neil.

Let me see your fingertips. Cold?

[Medic] Yes. Way to gut it out.

I went down for the modified SEAL training.

You know, they had gear in my room.

The boots that they had, the smallest pair they could get

were way too big for me.

By the first quarter of the day, I had massive blisters.

We were getting ready to have to do this training

in freezing cold water in full gear.

And I looked around at the 40 guys that were there.

It hit me without much thought,

I'm playing an officer if I right now

as me don't show up and suit up and hang in there,

then when we go to shoot, it'll never be the same.

And so I just said, no, I think you should

just gimme some tape, I'll tape my feet up and carry on.

And you know, they did some sneaky things.

Like they never called me by my name.

They always called me by my character name.

They set me up to be late.

They did like a lot of things

to like really put me through it.

Do ya? Fuck you.

I'm so glad we agree.

Every day for the most part was aspects

of it being very physically demanding.

You know, you don't do this if you don't know

what you're getting yourself into.

One of the hardest ones was when we had

the obstacle course sequence where we have to go over

a big wall and I let all of the other guys

use my back to get over and then they leave me.

I would say just on a personal level,

like I literally had a boot shaped bruise on my back

as when we walked away.

'Cause the stunt men were great.

They hopped over really with ease.

But the actors weren't quite as agile.

It was already kind of, almost kind of killed months

before anybody had ever even seen it.

I don't know all the reasons,

but maybe that it was a combination

of becoming the highest paid actress,

which was an amazing thing.

Not just for me, but for all women.

It coming off of Striptease,

it seemed as if I had betrayed women with Striptease,

and I was betraying men with GI Jane.

And I think those two things really became almost

like a media drive to go, well, does she really deserve it?

And maybe it being just ahead of its time.

In some ways I feel like I was targeted and shamed.

It kind of blurred it from really being seen

just for what it was.

They didn't allow it to kind of stand on its own.

I think the film really holds up.

I hear it a lot from people.

I think that Ridley made a really thoughtful,

intelligent film that really tackled the subject matter.

Hello Angels.

I was really unsure.

In a certain way, I felt like, oh gosh,

I haven't like been focused on working at all.

It was almost six years at that point.

I had to be kind of talked into it a little bit,

encouraged, not talked into it, but encouraged.

Like I really enjoyed the first one.

I loved the, you know, the whole thing.

Obviously I grew up with the original Charlie's Angels.

I was a kid and loved kind of the tone

and what they had done.

I don't know if I'd really, outside of Disclosure,

ever played a villain.

Definitely Drew was like giving me, you know,

super encouragement.

They had really written it for me

and I was definitely a little nervous.

But sometimes that's when you know,

like if you start to feel like you're a little afraid,

then that's sometimes a good sign.

[Jared] What time is it? 2:15.

Fuck me, fuck me.

And I'm guessing by the fact that you two

haven't said anything that the math checks out.

Look, we'd need some time to go over this

but Mr. Sullivan here seems like he knows what he's doing.

So it would appear we have a problem.

I mean, first of all, it was an incredible cast

because it also was so contained in just the one space.

It was almost more like a theater ensemble.

Again, really strong writing.

Smart, interesting and also just a very different character

for me than I'd had a chance to kind of step in and play.

Your point was passed on I need you to know that.

Eric.

It's okay. I understand.

Believe me, there was nothing else you could have done.

I guess.

At the time, it didn't seem like there was much of a choice.

You know, when somebody is on a certain side,

in this case, putting the company first,

when you are making those choices,

you're existing with blinders on,

only seeing the right of it not the wrong of it.

'Cause if you really looked at the wrong

of it, you wouldn't be doing it.

You can't play a character where you are

in judgment of them.

You have to be in alignment with them.

Even though I don't relate to somebody

who's making that kind of choice.

I think you, you just have to find the ways

in which you can connect to what the emotional thread is.

[people screaming]

People always ask for something new.

It's inevitable.

At 50, well, it stops.

It was such a unique out of the box way

of delving into the subject matter of aging,

that pursuit of perfection, the placing value

and validation on the external aspects

as opposed to valuing our insides.

It was a beautiful way to set the story by being an actress

and it having that heightened pressure

that's added on those of us who are in this industry.

But for me, the most fascinating part

was not what was being done to her,

but it's what she does to herself.

[Narrator] Have you ever dreamt of a better version

of yourself?

Younger, more beautiful, more perfect.

One single injection unlocks your DNA

and will release another version of yourself.

This is the Substance.

Coralie took something that is generally

an inner dialogue of such harshness and negativity

that I think is relatable not just to women,

but to all of us as human beings.

That we all are subject to moments of despair,

of feeling rejected, discarded, that we don't belong.

The battle with oneself is really though at the heart of it,

you know, the battle with the aspects that are ego-driven,

that the tendencies of narcissism and the need to be loved.

I mean, at the root of it, it's all like this desire

to be loved.

And you know, for me, this was also a character

that I knew stepping in was not about being glamorous

or looking great or you know, that to commit to this

was about going to the depths of those places,

not just physically, but emotionally,

that were very vulnerable and raw.

And again, like Ghost, I really read this

because it starts as one thing

conceptually moves into something

that no one could ever expect.

It's, you know, pushes you out of your comfort zone,

pushes you out of your comfort zone watching it.

It's opening a door to a cultural shift.

And how we collectively as a society have kind of seen women

as they get older, having less of a place or less value.

For me, what I've always pushed against is

when things have just not made sense to me.

Like, why shouldn't a pregnant woman also feel sexy?

Who says a woman isn't desirable

and sexy at whatever age?

Why shouldn't a woman be paid as much

as a man if they're doing equal work?

I've never been 61 and three quarters before.

This is my first time.

So I'm trying to just live it to the best version of myself

I can possibly be.

[bright music]