The balance must be respected. And you know what? Demi Moore must be, too. In her incredible Golden Globe acceptance speech for The Substance, Demi Moore remembered the time that she was told by an industry honcho that she was merely a “popcorn actress”, a derogatory term that meant she would never get the sort of roles that would win awards. Now that she has landed her first Oscar nomination, she has some thoughts.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly following her Best Actress nomination for The Substance (which nabbed five nods in total, including Best Picture), Demi Moore suggested the driving force behind that insult – even if it wasn’t mean that way (major benefit of the doubt there) – may have pushed her towards where she is today, more than 40 years after her big screen debut. “The most important part of that is that what that person said or didn’t say is irrelevant. How I held it was everything. It’s what I made it mean. It doesn’t matter if they actually meant it as I took it, but it’s what I made it mean about me, and it’s that I believed that I was never someone who would think or even consider that I could be acknowledged or honored for my work. I could do the work, but it couldn’t be something that was part of the equation. I think I believed that.”
Demi Moore also said that well before she landed the role of Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance she figured she was down for the count as far as what she would be offered. After all, in addition to the “popcorn actress” label there is a major problem in Hollywood with the kinds of roles that are offered to women of a certain age. But it turned out to be not just great for her but the body horror subgenre as well. Who would have thought that such a film would have featured so prominently throughout awards season? And while we won’t be seeing a sequel to Coralie Fargeat’s film, here’s hoping horror gets more recognition at the Oscars (waddup, Nosferatu!) and that actresses in the same demographic as Demi Moore continue to get roles that allow them to branch out and test audience expectations.
Do you think Demi Moore has emerged from the “popcorn actress” label? Do you expect to see her take home Best Actress?
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