In what was perhaps the most shocking win of the Golden Globes in the early going Sunday night, Demi Moore snagged a statuette for best film actress in a musical or comedy for her leading role in body-horror film “The Substance.”
Moore was up against some strong front-runners in the category, such as Karla Sofía Gascón in “Emilia Pérez” and Cynthia Erivo in “Wicked.”
Moore, the star of “Ghost” and “A Few Good Men,” appeared floored to be honored with the award, acknowledging it’s the first major acting award she has ever received in her storied career.
In a powerful acceptance speech, Moore recalled a producer who, 30 years ago, told her she was a “popcorn actress.”
“I made that mean that this wasn’t something I allowed to have. That I could do movies that were successful but that I couldn’t be acknowledged. I bought in, and I believed that,” Moore said.
That mindset, she said, “corroded me over time” to the point that she thought her career was over just a few years ago. She has also received four Razzies over her career, dubious honors that mocked several of her films.
“Maybe this was it, maybe that this was complete, that I’ve done what I’m supposed to do,” Moore recalled thinking.
It was at that low point, Moore said, that she “had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called ‘The Substance,’ and the universe told me, ‘You’re not done.'”
The universe was right, indeed.
“The Substance” follows Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), a washed-up actor who gets fired from her long-running job as a TV fitness instructor because she is deemed too old.
Offered an opportunity to take a “substance” to reveal a better version of herself, Sparkle takes it, in turn creating Sue (Margaret Qualley), a younger, hotter and, therefore, more successful, version of Sparkle, who tries to claim her predecessor’s life as her own.
Things, of course, go awry.
Moore made sure to take time to shout out director Coralie Fargeat, Qualley and the people who believed in her when she didn’t believe in herself.
“In these moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful [enough] … or basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick,'” Moore said.
She continued: “Today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong.”
Following the remarkable win, emcee Nikki Glaser weighed in on Moore’s “comeback.”
“There’s been a lot of talk about comebacks, right? Like Pamela Anderson and Demi Moore, who just won,” Glaser began.
“And it turns out, if you’re a woman over 50 in a lead role, they call it a ‘comeback.’ If you’re a guy over 50 in a lead role, congratulations. You’re about to play Sydney Sweeney’s boyfriend.”
