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

Vanity Fair

"I'm just trying to live my life to the best version of myself that I can possibly be." Demi walks us through her legendary career, discussing her roles in 'Blame It On Rio,' 'St. Elmo's Fire,' 'Ghost,' 'Mortal Thoughts,' 'A Few Good Men,' 'Indecent Proposal,' 'G.I. Jane,' 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle,' 'Margin Call' and her latest film 'The Substance.'   Director: Adam Lance Garcia  Director of Photography: Dave Sanders Editor: Matthew Colby Featuring: Demi Moore Producer: Madison Coffey Line Producer: Romeeka Powell Associate Producer: Lyla Neely Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza Camera Operator: Nigel Akam Gaffer: Dave Plank Audio Engineer: Kevin Teixeira Production Assistant: Nicole Murphy Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Additional Editor: Jason Malizia Assistant Editor: Andy Morell

Transcript

00:00Physically, one of the hardest ones was when we had the obstacle course sequence.

00:05We have to go over a big wall.

00:07All of the other guys use my back to get over, and then they leave me.

00:11I literally had a boot-shaped bruise on my back.

00:20Hi, I'm Demi Moore, and this is the timeline of my career.

00:25I love you, too.

00:33Prior to being cast in Blame It on Rio, living in West Hollywood with my mother, I had a

00:40neighbor which was Nastassja Kinski.

00:43She spoke English really well, but didn't feel confident with how she read English.

00:47And so as we became friends, she asked me to read scripts aloud to her.

00:52It kind of defined my decision to want to pursue acting.

00:57The first time I saw her, I felt like she was just the most beautiful creature I had

01:03ever seen, not just from her external beauty, but just in how comfortable she was in her

01:08own skin.

01:09And I didn't know what it was, but I wanted what she had.

01:13Right before my 19th birthday, I got cast in General Hospital, and that gave me a regular

01:18job and a regular paycheck.

01:20I had to ask permission because I auditioned and got the role in Blame It on Rio to play

01:25Michael Caine's daughter.

01:26Who can remember everyone she goes out with?

01:29There's more than one.

01:30Well, there's the dancer at the club we were at.

01:33The singer, too.

01:34Is she seeing all of them?

01:36But you know how it is, Dad.

01:37When you're hot, you're hot.

01:39Obviously, I'm a teenager.

01:41It was super exciting, big studio movie, shooting on location in an exotic place I had never

01:49been.

01:50The interesting thing is, literally, that is not a movie that could be made today.

01:53This is kind of, I don't want to say a dirty old man's fantasy, but kind of, because it's

01:58two men going on vacation with their teenage daughters, and the one teenage daughter having

02:03a mad kind of crush on the other father, and, you know, the hijinks that, you know, occurs.

02:14I have been needing to talk to you.

02:19It's like one of our infamous conversations is coming, like when you met my parents and

02:23decided I was adopted.

02:24Remember that?

02:25I still think your mother's hiding something from you.

02:28Yeah.

02:29Kevin, I'm curious.

02:30You know, all those nights we stayed up talking, how come you never made a pass at me?

02:38I was actually there for the casting of another movie.

02:42It may have even been a John Hughes movie.

02:45I may have been driving a motorcycle.

02:49Joel Schumacher saw me through the window.

02:51He sent his assistant to ask what was my name, and that was it.

02:55I was then called back in to meet with Joel Schumacher to audition for Jules.

03:01You're bailing me out again.

03:04When are you two going to get a new car, one that truly expresses your lifestyle as the

03:08emerging couple?

03:09Not everyone got recruited out of the school as an international banking money bag.

03:14Besides my money that gave me that car, I think I was conceived in the bank.

03:19It was an exciting time for young actors, and I remember being on this big sound stage,

03:25there being, you know, the craft service, and all of us just kind of saying hello.

03:30Some of them already knew each other because they had done Breakfast Club, particularly

03:34I think some of the boys.

03:36Nobody wanted to be called a brat.

03:37It wasn't trendy or popular.

03:39It felt like just that it diminished us or that we were less serious.

03:43I think that in a way, it spurred me to focus and just keep moving forward, but just not

03:50be attached to it.

03:51Almost as if that wasn't going to define me.

03:54Oh no.

03:55I hope it wasn't a masterpiece.

03:56Well, it's not now.

03:57Can I help?

03:58Yeah.

03:59Get him wet.

04:00Now just let the clay slide between your fingers.

04:15On paper, we're looking at a director who's only done comedy and broad comedy.

04:20Shirley, you can't be serious.

04:22I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

04:24This conceptually was a comedy, a thriller, and a romance.

04:30And I thought, okay, this could be amazing, or it could really be a disaster.

04:36And that was really exciting.

04:38The subject matter, I felt, was really moving and had the potential of really opening a

04:45pathway to a cultural shift in how we related to death and loss, but in a way that was also

04:55entertaining and really kind of checked all the boxes.

04:58Saved your life.

05:00Shit, shit, shit.

05:02You scared me to death.

05:04How did you do that?

05:05It's better than seeing this gorgeous body splattered all over the place.

05:08Look out.

05:09He had gone in New York on location to look at the apartment building that was going to

05:14be our apartment, that in fact they rebuilt on a stage.

05:19What I felt immediately upon meeting him was that beautiful combination of virility

05:27and strength, but gentility and sweetness.

05:31And again, you know, I was 25.

05:36We were still really young and early in our careers, and I think we were both just really

05:41excited.

05:42It's like I think about you every minute.

05:45It's like I can still feel you.

05:49My childhood didn't lend itself to having a lot of places of being vulnerable, and vulnerable

05:55at even feeling like I had the room to cry.

06:01And so when I looked at the emotional demand of this, it definitely brought up a lot of

06:06fear of would I be able to deliver what it needed.

06:12But again, those are the things that make you really want to do something.

06:16It gave me time to also indirectly look at processing loss.

06:22I think I had already experienced the loss of my father, but not really experienced it

06:28in a way that also was healing and uplifting.

06:32Never.

06:33All right?

06:34He would never do that.

06:36His concern was for me and the kids.

06:38He didn't want to lose me.

06:40Yeah, but for some reason you don't seem to be trusting him anymore.

06:45I just wanted to keep him out of it.

06:48Keep the peace.

06:49If I look at it at that time, it was kind of the beginning of what we know today as

06:55independent films.

06:56You know, look, I was stepping into something I still didn't know what I was doing.

07:01And so I was just kind of learning.

07:02It was juicy, character-driven material, and something that was a smaller budget, a little

07:09edgier, and not something I feel like I had had a chance to kind of step into.

07:15It just felt like a wonderful opportunity.

07:17You know, you got to learn to control your temper.

07:20It's not good how you fly off the handle.

07:22Whoa, whoa, whoa.

07:23Ain't like I just fly off the handle for no good reason.

07:25Yeah, but you got to learn to talk, not yell.

07:28I mean, you don't want to be intimidating everybody.

07:30Well, what was interesting is we obviously were a married couple, but we were not playing

07:36a married couple in it.

07:37I don't know if I—it's that I asked him to read the script just to see what he thought,

07:42and then he said, I'd love to play this guy.

07:45It was kind of one of those things that just rolled, which wasn't—it's not like we really

07:50planned it.

07:51I think that it allowed for a lot of freedom and safety.

07:56In watching him, I learned that he had such an ease within himself to go to these bigger

08:01places that I feel like I had always been a lot more kind of contained.

08:05Just watching his spontaneity and his—there was a very expansiveness to how he worked,

08:15which was different seeing it working with him versus just, say, going and watching him

08:19on a set.

08:20I've done something wrong again, haven't I?

08:23I was just wondering why two guys have been locked up since this morning, why their lawyer's

08:26outside hitting a ball.

08:28We need to practice.

08:32That wasn't funny.

08:33It was a little funny.

08:35I mean, it was such good writing.

08:38The dialogue was so rich.

08:41Aaron, because he came out of theater, there was a real value to wanting to get the words

08:49as they were, which was different, I think, than other things I'd had.

08:54You're the luckiest man in the world.

08:57There is nothing on this earth sexier, believe me, gentlemen, than a woman that you have

09:02to salute in the morning.

09:04That was an intense scene because he's really attacking me as a woman in a way that was

09:10undercutting and diminishing, but a powerful moment in revealing of his character, my character.

09:16I was working with great actors, with great material, with a great director, so there

09:21was a certain efficiency.

09:23We didn't have to labor.

09:24We didn't have to struggle to find.

09:26It just had to do with just showing up, being prepared, and doing your job.

09:32Suppose I were to offer you $1 million for one night with your wife.

09:39He'd tell you to go to hell.

09:42I didn't hear him.

09:45I'd tell you to go to hell.

09:47The heart of it was the relationship between this couple and really this bigger question

09:52of is there a price for everything?

09:54Knowing that there were a lot of love scenes, the challenge was that it was done not just

10:00tasteful but appropriate to the relationship and feeling protective of not wanting it to

10:05be exploitive but in service to the story.

10:09I just came up with this idea that instead of going, we can have this much nipple, we

10:14can have this much butt, to me that made it still feel so like I would then be showing

10:24up to do scenes but be in my head and be actually more hyper-focused versus being free to really

10:30be in the emotional exchange.

10:33And so I just ask for what I feel like should be a more standard way, which is let's be

10:39true collaborators.

10:41Let's go into this.

10:42I hear what you're looking for.

10:44I'm going to trust you, and I'm going to ask you to trust me.

10:47And so after you cut it together, let me take a look, and if there's anything that's maybe

10:52a little bit too much.

10:54And in the end, I didn't ask for anything.

10:56What's interesting is in the movie, if you really go and look, it isn't extremely new.

11:00Well, I don't want to say the things that Adrian Lyon was saying on the sidelines, but

11:06I was glad that I was given the 411, that he talks over the scenes, that he was wringing

11:13his hands with excitement and enthusiasm and sweating and like, ah, like, you know.

11:19And I don't even think he's conscious.

11:21He's just looking at the monitor, and he's like, oh, yes, grab his, mm.

11:26And you know, OK.

11:27And the first take, I was so shocked, like, oh, my God, what is happening here?

11:32And then I realized everyone was so focused on him that they weren't even noticing us.

11:37So I was like, OK, that feels a little more relaxed, but definitely is unlike any experience

11:42I've ever had.

11:43It's also so interesting.

11:44I mean, he is very voyeuristic in his films and very sexual.

11:52But I do think that there is a real sensitivity and a beauty.

12:15Can I see your fingertips?

12:17Cold?

12:18Yeah.

12:19Way to gut it out, Lieutenant.

12:21I went down for the modified SEAL training.

12:24You know, they had gear in my room.

12:27The boots that they had, the smallest pair they could get, were way too big for me.

12:31By the first quarter of the day, I had massive blisters.

12:36We were getting ready to have to do this training in freezing cold water in full gear.

12:41When I looked around at the 40 guys that were there, it hit me without much thought.

12:47I'm playing an officer.

12:48If I, right now, as me, don't show up and suit up and hang in there, then when we go

12:57to shoot, it'll never be the same.

12:58And so I just said, no, I think you should just give me some tape.

13:02I'll tape my feet up and carry on.

13:05And you know, they did some sneaky things.

13:07Like, they never called me by my name.

13:08They always called me by my character name.

13:11They set me up to be late.

13:13They did, like, a lot of things to, like, really put me through it.

13:16Boo-ya?

13:17Fuck you.

13:18I'm so glad we agreed.

13:23Every day, for the most part, was aspects of it being very physically demanding.

13:29You know, you don't do this if you don't know what you're getting yourself into.

13:33One of the hardest ones was when we had the obstacle course sequence, where we have to

13:39go over a big wall.

13:41And I let all of the other guys use my back to get over, and then they leave me.

13:46I would say, just on a personal level, like, I literally had a boot-shaped bruise on my

13:51back when we walked away, because the stuntmen were great.

13:54They hopped over, really, with ease, but the actors weren't quite as agile.

14:03It was already kind of almost, kind of killed months before anybody had ever even seen it.

14:09I don't know all the reasons, but maybe that it was a combination of becoming the highest

14:15paid actress, which was an amazing thing, not just for me, but for all women.

14:20It coming off of striptease, it seemed as if I had betrayed women with striptease, and

14:24I was betraying men with GI Jane.

14:26And I think those two things really became almost like a media drive to go, well, does

14:31she really deserve it?

14:34Maybe it being just ahead of its time.

14:35In some ways, I feel like I was targeted and shamed.

14:40It kind of blurred it from really being seen, just for what it was.

14:44They didn't allow it to kind of stand on its own.

14:47I think the film really holds up.

14:49I hear it a lot from people.

14:50I think that Ridley made a really thoughtful, intelligent film that really tackled the subject matter.

15:04Hello, Angels.

15:08I was really unsure.

15:10In a certain way, I felt like, oh gosh, I haven't been focused on working at all.

15:17It was almost six years at that point.

15:19I had to be kind of talked into it a little bit, encouraged.

15:22Not talked into it, but encouraged.

15:24I really enjoyed the first one.

15:26I loved the whole thing.

15:28Obviously, I grew up with the original Charlie's Angels.

15:30I was a kid and loved kind of the tone and what they had done.

15:34I don't know if I'd really, outside of disclosure, ever played a villain.

15:39Definitely, Drew was giving me super encouragement.

15:46They had really written it for me.

15:48I was definitely a little nervous, but sometimes that's when you know.

15:54If you start to feel like you're a little afraid, then that's sometimes a good sign.

15:59What time is it?

16:002.15.

16:01Fuck me.

16:02Fuck.

16:03Me.

16:04And I'm guessing by the fact that you two haven't said anything that the math checks

16:08out.

16:09Look, we'd need some time to go over this, but Mr. Sullivan here seems like he knows

16:15what he's doing, so it would appear we have a problem.

16:18I mean, first of all, it was an incredible cast, because it also was so contained in

16:22just the one space.

16:24It was almost more like a theater ensemble.

16:26Again, really strong writing.

16:29Smart, interesting, and also just a very different character for me than I'd had a chance to

16:35kind of step in and play.

16:36Your point was passed on.

16:39I need you to know that.

16:40Eric.

16:41It's okay.

16:42I understand.

16:43Believe me.

16:44There was nothing else you could have done.

16:48I guess.

16:50At the time, it didn't seem like there was much of a choice.

16:55When somebody is on a certain side, in this case, putting the company first, when you

17:03are making those choices, you're existing with blinders on, only seeing the right of

17:08it, not the wrong of it.

17:10Because if you really looked at the wrong of it, you wouldn't be doing it.

17:12You can't play a character where you're in judgment of them.

17:16You have to be in alignment with them.

17:19Even though I don't relate to somebody who's making that kind of choice, I think you just

17:24have to find the ways in which you can connect to what the emotional thread is.

17:35People always ask for something new.

17:39It's inevitable.

17:40At 50, well, it stops.

17:47It was such a unique, out-of-the-box way of delving into the subject matter, of aging,

17:54that pursuit of perfection, the placing value and validation on the external aspects as

18:02opposed to valuing our insides.

18:06It was a beautiful way to set the story by being an actress and it having that heightened

18:13pressure that's added on those of us who are in this industry.

18:19For me, the most fascinating part was not what was being done to her, but it's what

18:24she does to herself.

18:49Corley took something that is generally an inner dialogue of such harshness and negativity

18:59that I think is relatable not just to women, but to all of us as human beings.

19:04That we all are subject to moments of despair, of feeling rejected, discarded, that we don't

19:11belong.

19:12The battle with oneself is really, though, at the heart of it.

19:17The battle with the aspects that are ego-driven, the tendencies of narcissism, and the need

19:25to be loved.

19:27At the root of it, it's all this desire to be loved.

19:31For me, this was also a character that I knew stepping in was not about being glamorous

19:37or looking great, or that to commit to this was about going to the depths of those places,

19:44not just physically, but emotionally, that were very vulnerable and raw.

19:50And again, like Ghost, I really read this because it starts as one thing, conceptually

19:56moves into something that no one could ever expect.

19:59It pushes you out of your comfort zone, pushing you out of your comfort zone watching it.

20:04It's opening a door to a cultural shift and how we collectively as a society have seen

20:10women as they get older having less of a place or less value.

20:14For me, what I've always pushed against is when things have just not made sense to me.

20:19Like why shouldn't a pregnant woman also feel sexy?

20:22Who says a woman isn't desirable and sexy at whatever age?

20:27Why shouldn't a woman be paid as much as a man if they're doing equal work?

20:32I've never been 61 and 3 quarters before.

20:36This is my first time.

20:37I'm trying to just live it to the best version of myself I can possibly be.

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