Demi Moore Recalled Looking ‘Not Young Enough’ to Play Certain Characters Before The Substance
Jason Pham
Demi Moore isn’t scared of aging like her Substance character, Elizabeth Sparkle. “When we chase something out of the drive of all that we’re not, when we focus on that, then we can’t be celebrating all that we are,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024.
In The Substance, Moore stars as a fading celebrity who, after being by her producer due to her age, uses a black market drug that creates a younger version of herself. While Moore feels different about aging now, she confessed that her mindset hasn’t always been like this. “I looked at these compilation reels [montages highlighting her work at recent award ceremonies] going, ‘Oh wow, actually I was cute,'” she said. “But I can also look back and remember how critical I was, all the things that I found wrong with myself. So it’s something that is really a job that has to start from within.”
She also noted the differences and similarities between her and Elizabeth. “Elizabeth Sparkle and I are very different,” she said. “If you notice, she has no friends, she has no family, she has no balance in her life. Her entire reflection of value is only on the external. What I did relate to is not what was being done to her, but what she did to herself. Because again, I have experienced it in many different ways. It’s not that I don’t still experience it. The difference today is I have different tools. I have a different way of catching it and shifting it and knowing what’s real and what’s not real, and that the value of who I really am is not just my external self. I think that that is something that comes with chronological time on this earth. But that rejection and pain, out of a desire to seek some sense of perfection, I certainly understood.”
While Moore hasn’t confirmed whether she’s ever had any cosmetic procedures, a source told Life & Style in February 2025 that she had her cheek filler dissolved ahead of the 2025 Oscars. “Demi is drawing attention, because she’s clearly had some things removed,” the insider said. “She’s easing up on the nip/tucks, her cheeks look more natural, so she may have had her cheek filler dissolved.” The source continued, “There might be some left, but it’s not as obvious as before. There are other telltale signs she’s relaxing on the fillers and Botox.”
Despite plastic surgery rumors, Dr. Mark Solomons, who stars on Channel 4’s 10 Years Younger and has not treated Moore, told Hello! magazine that he believes her youthful appearance is due to her “incredible bone structure” rather than a ton of cosmetic procedures. “Demi’s a natural beauty,” Life & Style’s source added. The insider continued, “It’s a Hollywood trend that’s gotten way out of control and fortunately Demi isn’t falling for it, at least not like she was. She’s still focused on maintaining her youthful glow, but she’s opting for less invasive things like micro needling, facials and just taking care of herself with diet, exercise and getting plenty of sleep.”
In her interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Moore explained that she believes the pressure of aging affects everyone, no matter their gender and how old they are.
“I got a call from my agent saying, ‘There’s this script. It’s got a lot of interest. It’s definitely really different,'” she said of how she was cast in The Substance. “He started to say something else and then said, “But you know what? I actually don’t want to say anything.’ And I realize now, what could he have said? He said, ‘I just think you should read it and see what you think.’ There was perhaps a little couching out of the sensitivity of dealing with aging. Everybody is different in their relationship to that and their own sensitivity to it; somebody might feel it hits too close to home. But for me, I was quite blown away when I read this.”
She continued, “It really captivated me, the way in which it was exploring this subject of aging and, in particular, that violence that we can have against ourselves, the way in which we all — men and women alike — can dissect and criticize our own reflection. It just felt so relatable, on a human level. The other part of it was new territory for me — a body horror film. But as an actor, there were so many interesting challenges, not just the physical side of it, with the prosthetics, but the emotional rawness needing to be conveyed with very little dialogue.”
She also told the magazine about how she was told she looked both too young and too old when she returned to acting after taking a break to care for her three young children in the 2000s. “I looked too good to play older, and was not young enough to play the others.” She now elaborates, “I didn’t quite know where I fit or where I belonged,” she said. “I really did hit a point where I started to wonder, not like, ‘Is this over?’ But, ‘Is this actually complete? Have I done what I was supposed to do in this?’”
