Conocemos el ejercicio: cuando las actrices de Hollywood alcanzan cierta edad, se les expulsa la cinta transportadora de la industria. Algunos encuentran algunos roles, o tal vez un concierto como embajador de la marca, portavoz o gurú de fitness. Ese es el mundo de Elisabeth Sparkle, interpretado por Demi Moore, en la sátira de la industria del cuerpo de coralie Fargeat ". Sin embargo, esta película representa el mejor papel en la carrera de Moore de 61 años.
In the mid-1990s, Moore was a star after “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Ghost,” “A Few Good Men,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Disclosure.” She hit her financial peak with the 1996 “Striptease” — $12 million, which inspired snarky asides of “Gimme Moore” — but the reviews were bad and the box office not much better. Her career shifted into smaller movies and smaller roles (including a standout turn in 2011’s “Margin Call”), many of which didn’t deserve her presence and, well, sparkle.
Este año, Moore tuvo un papel de apoyo delicioso y valiente como la traicionada Ann Woodward en "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans", pero en "The Sustance", Moore está muy de vuelta a la cabeza. A veces está desnuda, otras veces debajo de capas de prótesis, pero su fuerza es innegable en todo momento.
In Fargeat’s second feature to after 2017’s feminist horror “Revenge,” Elisabeth is fired for being too over-the-hill for the popular workout program she hosts at the end of her decorated acting career. Desperate, she tries an experimental, self-administered medical procedure in which a yellow, oozy serum, once injected, produces a “better version” of Elisabeth through horrifying means. That version is Sue (Margaret Qualley), a third of Elisabeth’s age and with all her pre-aging joie de vivre restored. There’s one very important rule, though: Sue and Elisabeth must alternate being in the world every other week while the other one goes into a coma. Think the eager ingenue Sue, now the star of Elisabeth’s former show, will abide by the rules?
En "The Substance", Moore se desvía de proyectar autocomplacidades internalizadas a un desentrañal total cuando Sue Syphons de la belleza restante de Elisabeth, chupando la vida de ella en el proceso. Nunca has visto a Moore en modo de mujer en el verge como lo tienes aquí; Ella es una verdadera contendiente a la mejor actriz en la próxima ceremonia de OR 2024 Cannes Palme. Recibir ese honor del jurado de Greta Gerwig sería un gesto maravilloso para darle la bienvenida a Moore cuando ella ingresa a un "" (las palabras de su coprotagonista Dennis Quaid en la conferencia de prensa del Festival "Sustancia") con un papel matizado y jugoso para el que está por el cual es. hace mucho tiempo.
IndieWire spoke with Demi Moore in one of her first one-on-one interviews for “The Substance” at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
IndieWire: We all came out of this movie in rapture after the Sunday morning press screening. This is one of my favorite films of the festival. Did you watch the movie here for the first time?
Demi Moore:En primer lugar, muchas gracias. Eso es muy emocionante de escuchar. En realidad. Había visto una versión anterior, por lo que la otra noche era, de hecho, mi primera vez. Lo había visto tal vez dos meses antes, así que esta era la primera vez que lo vi con una audiencia y completado.
¿Cuál es su reacción a las reacciones, que han estado extasiados?
As you can see from watching it, starting with it on paper, it felt risky. It was one [where] you don’t know if it’s going to all come together or work. It’s what you hope. And so, in all honesty, I think I’m still feeling a little bit of shock, awe. I feel extremely humbled by the overall experience. I’ve never had a Cannes premiere, so to just be in the theater with people who just love cinema was also just a mind-blowing experience and really encouraging, considering our current times and issues around getting people in the theater. Just to feel that that love of cinema on top of everything else was just extraordinary.
This might be your best performance and best role ever. Where do you place it?
In terms of it being kind of complex and nuanced, and also this being very different… There’s not a lot of dialogue in this, and [with] the level of rawness and vulnerability that it called for, it’s definitely up there.
‘The Substance’MUBI
What was the process with Coralie casting you? Now I can’t picture anyone else in this role.
En primer lugar, ha estado viviendo con esta historia, respirándola, incluso mucho antes de que me llegue.[the movie entered production almost two years ago in Paris]. El cuidado y la protección de la visión que tenía era evidente. Mientras se reunía con diferentes actores, tuvimos reuniones de zoom y pudimos reunirnos en persona, pero nos reunimos seis veces antes de que se decidiera por quién quería ir para esto.
Nunca antes habías hecho una verdadera película de terror, excepto tal vez "The Seventh Sign" en 1988.
I can watch serial killer programs all day. I can fall asleep to them. It’s literally some weird thing that they’re relaxing for me. I don’t know. I’ve always been a little squeamish with [horror] but in this case, with this being phantasmagoric, the body horror… I never related to it, even though it is exactly what you just said in that way. Maybe that’s because it’s important for me to approach it from the inside out in that core of what is relatable to this woman to me.
Did you identify with Elisabeth Sparkle? It’s this sort of classic story of an actress getting older. Hollywood never knows what to do with them, and while you never stopped working, obviously the kind of roles that you do and what you get offered changes.
If we step back from it being about an actor, [the film is more about]Un deseo de tener validación, ser visto, apreciarse, pertenecer y lo que es sentirse rechazado y sentir no, que hay algo mal contigo. Cuando se agrega el aspecto del envejecimiento, que realmente se trata de nuestra incapacidad para controlar,[se convierte en] an exploration of a lack of acceptance of self. What really connected me was the unique way in which [Coralie Fargeat chose]para contar esta historia.
Hay mucha desnudez de todos en esta película que es esencial para la historia y nunca gratuito. ¿Coralie tuvo que convencerte de eso, o estabas listo para ir y hacerlo?
There were a lot of really thoughtful discussions and an important need to feel safe and really understand how it was going to be used. It’s interesting, I’ve seen a couple of things where, of course, for the headline, they’re making it all about that. And that I have to say [es] disappointing because it’s not about that. It isn’t about nudity, it’s about the vulnerability.
Dennis Quaid, Coralie Fargeat, Margaret Qualley, Demi Moore en el estreno de "The Substance" durante el 77º Festival de Cine de Cannes Michael Buckner para Variety
What’s maybe different here is that you’re working with a female filmmaker for these kinds of scenes versus like “Striptease” or “Indecent Proposal” where you’re being directed by a man. Something must have been different here.
I don’t know if it was, or even something that I thought about. For me, it was about the context, the context of how the nudity was going to be used. It was all spelled out on paper, so I really understood what we needed to bring to it to. [Margaret Qualley and I]se tuvieron el uno al otro durante la mayoría de esos momentos y creo que[the filmmakers] went out of their way to make the set feel as secure and comfortable as it possibly could be. But I think the biggest difference is that [la desnudez] wasn’t sexualized. It was really more in reflection of oneself in that way of what is it to be with yourself.
In terms of the sort of split between Sue and Elisabeth Sparkle, how much did you see them and play them as kind of the same person with the same brain? Or do you see Sue as more of an offshoot and ideal form, not only in appearance, but also in her behaviors?
Si te imaginas, tomemos gemelos idénticos, y tal vez eso ni siquiera sea un buen ejemplo. Tuvimos muchas discusiones tratando de descubrir algunas conexiones, algunas lógicas, por lo que todos operábamos desde el mismo pensamiento. La mejor manera de pensar fue que mientras compartimos la conciencia, ese cuerpo físico[with] a cellular memory, [each] was creating its own experience. The longer Sue had her time awake, you can kind of see the lack of regard she starts to have for Elisabeth the more times she’s in her own body.
Estás bajo una gran cantidad de maquillaje de películas de terror y prótesis en esta película. Cuando Elisabeth comienza a decaerse, los efectos comienzan lo suficiente con la necrosis en su mano. Pero se vuelve mucho peor. ¿Cuánto tiempo tomó eso en el día a día?
Well, the finger, the hand was maybe three hours, but generally the majority was anywhere from six to nine hours.
And all of this is practical.
That was one of Coralie’s major creative choices. She wanted to use practical effects as much as possible. When you read a script on paper and you’re reading [acerca de] the monster, it’s like, oh, yeah, that seems really great. [Pero] it is a very big commitment and I have a huge respect for people who’ve taken on roles where the entire movie from start to finish is prosthetics.
En cierto modo, era parte de lo que hizo que esto fuera intrigante hacer. En el nivel mental más emocional y mental de esa desintegración es la idea de cuándo uno está robando del otro, ella estaba robando de sí misma. Tiene que venir de alguna parte. Nada de eso es gratis, y no era solo envejecimiento, se estaba deformando. Creo que la metáfora de eso es muy poderosa. Es como perseguir la perfección tan a menudo puede dejarte en un lugar peor que donde empezaste.
¿Qué puertas esperas que esta película pueda abrir?
I wouldn’t want to put any locked-in thing [out there]. What I love is this was a rich, complex, demanding role that gave me an opportunity to really push myself outside of my comfort zone, and in the end to feel like I explored and grew not only as an actor, but as a person. And so if there’s any hope, it’s really just to kind of re-engage in a way. I feel like I took a real step back for a long time and really questioned even whether or not this is what I should be doing. This was a part of waking myself up.
"La sustancia" se abrirá desde Mubi a finales de este año.