It’s the bloody body horror that has made audiences squirm in their seats – and is now making waves throughout awards season.
Demi Moore has already won a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award for her performance as fading star Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance – and we’ll find out later on if she gets to add a BAFTA to that list.
The film sees the ’90s icon playing an Oscar winner turned fitness guru struggling to accept she has been unceremoniously dropped from her TV show because she’s too old. She signs up for a secret new medical procedure to create a younger version of herself – without fully understanding what the consequences might be.
Moore stars alongside Margaret Qualley, who plays her younger version. The impact of creating this other “self” – called Sue – on her own body is pretty gruesome.
Director Coralie Fargeat insists her visceral story is more allegory than gory, reflecting the daily violence and sexism women experience throughout life.
“The story was really for me expressing what a life of a woman in our society is in a very genuine way, which is the violence that I think it’s at every level and stage… since we were little girls,” she tells Sky News.
“There are so many pressures that make you feel that if you are not the perfect fantasy or ideal then you don’t deserve to exist. That you have to cut this, hide that, keep it inside, and it is a huge jail that we’ve been raised with and it generates so much violence.”
A few years ago, The Substance might not have been considered traditional awards season fare. But horrors are having a moment, with Heretic and Nosferatu in the running at several ceremonies this year. And the theme of The Substance, a reflection of the harsh realities of ageing for women, especially in Hollywood, is resonating.
The ‘popcorn’ speech
On stage at the Globes, Moore, 62, gave an emotional speech about winning her first major award after 45 years in the business, despite starring in dozens of hit films including Ghost, A Few Good Men and Indecent Proposal. The irony was not lost.
“Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn’ actress and at that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something that I was allowed to have, that I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged,” she says.
“I bought in, and I believed that, and that corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it, maybe I was complete. I’ve done what I was supposed to do.
“And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance, and the universe told me that you’re not done.”
Moore thanked French filmmaker Fargeat along with her team, and said the film was a reminder “that I do belong”.
Now, The Substance is nominated for five BAFTAs and five Oscars.
Fargeat says she let out “a huge scream of joy” when she found out – saying the nods are particularly satisfying after she initially struggled to secure funding for the film.
“The space that [women] have is still to be pretty, to smile, to be gentle, polite, and I really wanted to be the opposite.”
‘She took risks’
Fargeat is also BAFTA and Oscar-nominated for best director – but once again, is the only female filmmaker in the running.
“Being the only woman director, I still think it tells a lot of things about all the imbalance, you know, the inequality that there is in society,” she says.
“There are as many women in film school as there are men… when you look at the difference between film school and where we are now, like [the absence of women making] second and third feature films. The difference is drastic.”
She was told to tone the film down “a lot”.
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But Fargeat stuck to her guns and it paid off. Critics have called Moore’s performance the best of her career, with many tipping her to win her first-ever BAFTA and Oscar.
On awards prediction site Gold Derby, Moore is the favourite to win best actress at the Oscars, with more than half of the experts backing her. For the BAFTAs, they have her tied with Anora’s Mikey Madison.
“The truth is that she took many risks,” Fargeat says of Moore. “The script arrived to her at a time where she was in the process of getting the control of who she was back, not letting the outside world define her worth, being empowered for herself to decide who she wanted to be – and the next chapter of her life.”
