Demi Moore stars in Coralie Farguet’s body horror shocker Substance She needed to accept “a level of vulnerability and rawness” in relation to her body on screen.
Moore brought everything to the film, a bloody, grotesque satire on beauty standards, toxic masculinity and female self-hatred, with the film’s frequent and prominent nudity, as well as its gruesome violence, garnering a great deal of attention after its world premiere in Cannes. Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an acclaimed actress who becomes the celebrity host of a daytime exercise program, who is replaced by a younger, more beautiful star (Margaret Qualley), triggering a confrontation between the two women. One of the film’s more graphic scenes features Moore and Qualley in a nude, no-holds-barred bloody fight. The Cannes audience loved it and gave the film a rousing reception Sunday night.
“I had someone who was a great teammate,” said Moore of Qualley. “We were obviously quite close at some moments…and naked. But there was also a lightness (in shooting those scenes).”
Speaking at the press conference for SubstanceMoore said that the film “pushed me out of my comfort zone” but she was candid in saying that explicit imagery was “essential to telling this story” and that Fargate approached the scenes “with great sensitivity”. Installed. A land of mutual trust.”
While many drew comparisons between the film’s story and Moore’s own experience as an aging actress in youth-obsessed Hollywood, Evil spirit And GI Jane The star said she never saw herself as a “victim” Substance It’s about skewing the “male view of the ideal woman”.
Fargit stated that the violence in the film was an allegory of the emotional and physical violence that men inflict on women, and that women inflict on themselves in pursuit of unrealistic ideals of beauty.
“I don’t know any woman who doesn’t have an eating disorder or something that does violence to her body,” Fargate said, adding that she decided to depict violence on screen “because I think That this violence is too much.”
male character in Substance Don’t come across well, each is shown as a different version of toxic masculinity. But the filmmakers said they did not want to condemn an entire gender. “We’re not anti-men, we’re anti-jerks,” Moore said.
Dennis Quaid, who played Harvey, a sleazy TV producer in the film, said, “People say (Fargeet) hates men.” “No, he hates idiots. But it’s a lot of fun to play with donkeys.”
Quaid also praised Moore and called her performance an “incredible third act debut” in her career. He also dedicated his role to the late actor Ray Liotta, who was originally cast to play Harvey. “He died this week, two years ago,” Quaid said. “He was an incredible actor. I dedicate it (this role) to him.”
Substance It was produced by Working Title and was originally to be distributed by Universal. Instead, it will get a US release through Mubi, marking the biggest theatrical release ever for the art house streamer.
