By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Demi Moore thought her four-decade Hollywood career might be over a few years ago. The actress, 62, battled negative thoughts about herself after a producer dismissed her as a “popcorn actress.”
She took that to mean that even if her movies were a success, she was not worthy of awards recognition. Then came “The Substance” and her role as a fading TV fitness instructor whose injection of a serum for youth has gory side effects.
The movie tackles topics such as aging and self-doubt and, as Moore said at January’s Golden Globes, moments when women feel “we’re not smart enough, or pretty enough, or skinny enough, or successful enough. Or basically just not enough.”
“I had a woman say to me, just know, you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick,” Moore said.
During a May press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, actor Dennis Quaid described his role in the film as her TV producer as that of a cold-hearted male and Moore interrupted. “I don’t want to say that we’re anti-men. We’re just anti-jerks,” she said.
Now, the star who rose to fame as part of the “Brat Pack” of actors in 1980s coming-of-age movies, is the frontrunner to take the Academy Award for best actress on Sunday. It would be her first Oscar after dozens of film and TV roles.
“Hollywood loves a comeback,” said Ian Sandwell, movies editor at Digital Spy. “They love to give an award for actors that have been known well, but have not maybe had the success that they deserved.”
Her early career featured two years on television soap opera “General Hospital” before she made it to the big screen in “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “About Last Night.” She was considered part of the “Brat Pack,” a group of young Hollywood stars seen at the time as entitled and unprofessional.
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In the 1990s, Moore starred in hit romances “Ghost” – the top-grossing movie in the United States in 1990 – and “Indecent Proposal” as well as military thriller “A Few Good Men.”
In 1995, she became the first actress to earn more than $10 million for a role, for the story of a stripper trying to raise money to get custody of her daughter in “Striptease.” That movie, and 1997 film “G.I. Jane,” were commercial flops.
After that, Moore took periodic breaks from acting, saying she had difficulty finding good roles.
She embraced the opportunity in “The Substance,” which required her to appear fully naked at times and to be transformed into a grotesque older woman through prosthetics.
When the performance won her a Golden Globe, Moore said it was the first time she had ever been honored as an actor. She also won a Screen Actors Guild Award for the part, and has talked about feeling humbled and grateful.
Celebrity stylist Alexandra Mandelkorn said Moore had been “killing it” during this year’s awards season.
“I just love the joy that she’s bringing into this moment,” Mandelkorn said. “The story of how she was really feeling, like maybe not that great about her place in the industry, and then to have this movie come out that really mirrors that story.”
Moore is favored to win best actress on Sunday, according to experts polled by awards website Gold Derby.
Her main competition is Mikey Madison, the 25-year-old who plays a sex worker in “Anora.” “Emilia Perez” star Karla Sofia Gascon, an early favorite for the prize, saw her chances dwindle when some of her old social media posts sparked outrage.
The other contenders are Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, nominated for “I’m Still Here,” and Cynthia Erivo of “Wicked.”
Winners are chosen by the nearly 11,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
If Moore is awarded the Oscars golden statuette on Sunday, “it would be a feel-good story, which I feel is what we all need right now from the Academy, and from just the film industry in general,” Sandwell said.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London and Alicia Powell in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)
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