Demi Moore recently opened up about the "intense" experience of filming her latest movie, "The Substance", especially since she was dealing with a health setback during production.
The 61-year-old actress, known for her role in "Feud", disclosed in an interview with the L.A. Times that she developed shingles during a brief break from filming the new project, in which she stars alongside Margaret Qualley.
"To give you a sense of how intense it was, during my first week off—when it was just Margaret filming—I came down with shingles," Moore shared with the publication.
She further revealed, "And then I ended up losing about 20 pounds."
Shingles is a "painful rash illness" that occurs when the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox, "reactivates in the body," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC explains that shingles can cause a "painful, itchy, or tingling" rash that typically appears on one side of the body, and the risk of developing shingles increases with age.
Margaret Qualley, Moore’s co-star, also discussed the difficulties she encountered while working on the film, mentioning she battled "intense acne" for an extended period.
Director Coralie Fargeat highlighted in the interview her desire to emphasize the struggle of living within one's own body and the transformations it undergoes.
"I read a tagline recently about the film that said, ‘Being a woman is body horror,’” Fargeat remarked. “The movie can be frightening on many levels, but at its core, it plays with the violence of what we do to our bodies."
"The Substance" delves into these themes. In the film, Moore portrays Elisabeth Sparkle, a Hollywood star who takes an experimental drug designed to create a younger version of herself — her clone, Sue, played by Qualley.
The official synopsis for the horror film teases how this fictional drug works: "It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?"
In an earlier conversation with "Interview magazine", Moore revealed that she felt "moved" when she first read the script, describing it as "a unique way of exploring the issues of aging, societal conditioning, and the pressures imposed by a male-idealized image of women that many of us have internalized."
She continued, explaining that the film tackles these themes in a deeply personal way. "At its core, it’s really about the things we do to ourselves. I loved that the movie illustrates this in such a visceral way—showing the violence we enact through our thoughts, how we attack ourselves, and distort our own realities," Moore said.
"The Substance" is set to hit theaters on September 20, 2024.
The Quran - Chapter Al-Haqqah : 29 - 32
My authority has been stripped from me.”
˹It will be said,˺ “Seize and shackle them,
then burn them in Hell,
then tie them up with chains seventy arms long.
