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Demi Moore on “The Substance” and resisting a toxic beauty culture
Demi Moore has lived in her home since 2005. “It’s had some interesting incarnations,” she said. “It was a house with three kids, and now it’s just me and my silly pack of dogs.”
It’s hard to think of Moore as a grandmother who lives alone, but here she is, and doing what some are calling the best work of her career. Her latest film, “The Substance,” is about an aging TV star who finds a sinister-looking potion that can give her a younger, more perfect version of herself, but at a terrible price.
“I put so much pressure on myself,” she said, when discussing the value she had placed on her attractiveness in the past. “And I did have experiences of being told to lose weight. And all of those, while they may have been embarrassing and humiliating, it’s what I did to myself because of that.”
To watch a trailer for “The Substance” click on the video player below:
For example, when she was shooting 1993’s “Indecent Proposal,” she would ride a bike every day from her home in Malibu to Paramount Studios in Hollywood: that’s around 30 miles each way.
And she was nursing a baby at the time: “I think she was, like, five or six months old when we were shooting that. So, I was feeding her through the night, getting up in the dark with a trainer, with headlamp, biking all the way to Paramount, wherever, even on location where we were shooting; then shooting a full day, which is usually a 12-hour day; and then starting all over again. Even just the idea of, like, what I did to my body, it’s, like, so crazy, so ridiculous.”
But, she said, she thought it was what was required of her at the time: “Yeah. But you look back and you kinda go, ‘Did it really matter that much?’ Probably not! But at the time, I made it mean everything.”
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Moore’s been in the spotlight since the ’80s – a talented, and at the time troubled, member of Hollywood’s so-called “Brat Pack.” On-screen she sparkled, in films like “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “About Last Night.” Off-screen, she struggled with self-esteem. “I just have a lot of compassion for what a scared little girl I actually really was, even though I didn’t let anybody see that,” she said. “And if I could go back, I would give her a hug and say, ‘It’s OK. It’s OK.'”
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It was OK; Moore went on to become the highest-paid woman in the business, and she lifted other women as well. When she got a record $12.5 million for the 1996 movie “Striptease,” other women in Hollywood demanded, and got, bigger paychecks themselves.
She also challenged the notion of things like whether a 40-year-old woman should wear a bikini; and after shaving her head for 1997’s “G.I. Jane,” how long a woman’s hair should be when she reached a certain age.
Now, at 61, her hair hangs to her waist. “After I shaved my head, I think I just started to let my hair grow with the idea that you can have long hair if that’s what you want,” Moore said. “Who says that it’s not okay? And I’ve heard it many times. If I didn’t think I liked how I looked, then I would cut it.”
And in “The Substance,” she’s once again asking, Why do we think this way?
In one scene, in which her character is going on a date, she looks in the mirror, applies makeup, then purposely smears it. She said the process of shooting that scene was difficult. “Emotionally, that idea that I think many of us have been where we’re trying to make something better. and then we just keep making it worse,” she said. “For me, it’s one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the whole film. And it was at least 15 takes each time. And so, by the end, my face was raw.”
Mubi
What happens to her after a day like that? “You go fall apart. You just go fall into your bed!” she laughed.
Smith asked, “For you personally, today, when you look in the mirror, what do you think?”
“Uhm, it fluctuates,” said Moore. “Some days I look and I’m like, Wow. That’s pretty good. And some days, I catch myself dissecting, hyper-focusing on, you know, things that I don’t like. The difference is, now I can catch myself. I can go, Yeah, I don’t like that loose skin. But, you know, it is what it is. So, I’m gonna make the best of what is, as opposed to chasing what isn’t.“
Smith asked, “Give me an example of that, something that maybe you chased that, in retrospect, you lost something?”
“I used to think, Oh, like my face, it’s like, oh so, like, chubby. I have no angles. I have nothing. And then you’re like, Yeah, but now it’s, like, loose! I wouldn’t mind some of that chubbiness back, in the right places!”
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Moore has three grown children with ex-husband Bruce Willis, who is now living with dementia. She says when she’s in town she tries to visit every week. “The important thing is just to meet him where he’s at, as opposed to being attached to who he was, how he was. Because, again, that only just puts you in a place of loss versus being in the present, meeting him where he’s at, and finding the joy and the loving of just all that is where he is.”
It seems Demi Moore has found peace with the things that are beyond her control – a wisdom and a freedom that, if we’re lucky enough, come naturally in a long and interesting life.
“I think that I’m sitting in a different place in my life than I’ve ever been,” she said. “I have the most autonomy. My children are grown. I have my most independence that I’ve ever had. And so, I just am really trying to focus on what really brings me joy. I don’t like to project and say, ‘Well, this is where I want to be,’ because I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m gonna be. But I know that it’s an opportunity for me to actually have a good time!”
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
Legislation to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now headed to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.
“The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake,” proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
The bill’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they’ve rightfully earned,” said Shannon Benton, executive director for the Senior Citizens League, which advocates for retirees and which has long pushed for the expansion of Social Security benefits. “This legislation finally restores fairness to the system and ensures the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
The vote came down to the wire, as the Senate looked to wrap up its current session. Senators rejected four amendments and a budgetary point of order late Friday night that would have derailed the measure, given the small window of time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among the 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote that took place Wednesday.
“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, told the chamber ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduce Social Security payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren’t covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet the bill’s bipartisan support eroded in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers voicing doubts due to its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have needed to be re-introduced in the next Congress.
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Saturday is the winter solstice and 2024’s shortest day. Here’s what to know about the official start of winter.
The 2024 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere. The celestial event signifies the first day of winter, astronomically.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the day each year that has the shortest period of daylight between sunrise and sunset, and therefore the longest night. It happens when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the globe south of the equator, the National Weather Service explains.
The farther north you are, the shorter the day will be, and in the Arctic Circle, the sun won’t rise at all.
How is the day of the winter solstice determined?
The winter solstice occurs because of the Earth’s tilt as it rotates around the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, the nights last longer. The longest night happens on the solstice because the hemisphere is in its furthest position from the sun. That occurs each year on Dec. 21 or 22.
This year, it falls on Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m ET, to be precise.
On the summer solstice, when the northern tilt is closest to the sun, we have the longest day, usually June 20 or 21.
National Weather Service
The solstices are not always exactly on the 21st every year because the earth’s rotation around the sun is 365.25 days, instead of 365 even.
Will days start getting longer after the winter solstice?
Yes. Each day after the solstice, we get one minute more of sunlight. It doesn’t sound like much, but after just two months, or around 60 days, we’ll be seeing about an hour more of sunlight.
When will winter officially be over in 2025?
The meteorological winter ends on March 20, 2025. Then, spring will last until June 20, when the summer solstice arrives.
How is the winter solstice celebrated around the world?
Nations and cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times with varying rituals and traditions. The influence of those solstice traditions can still be seen in our celebrations of holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Britannica notes.
The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival celebrated the end of the planting season and has close ties with modern-day Christmas. It honored Saturn, the god of harvest and farming. The multiple-day affair had lots of food, games and celebrations. Presents were given to children and the poor, and slaves were allowed to stop working.
Gatherings are held every year at Stonehenge, a monumental circle of massive stones in England that dates back about 5,000 years. The origins of Stonehenge are shrouded in mystery, but it was built to align with the sun on solstice days.
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The Hopi, a Native American tribe in the northern Arizona area, celebrate the winter solstice with dancing, purification and sometimes gift-giving. A sacred ritual known as the Soyal Ceremony marks the annual milestone.
In Peru, people honor the return of the sun god on the winter solstice. The ancient tradition would be to hold sacrificial ceremonies, but today, people hold mock sacrifices to celebrate. Because Peru is in the Southern Hemisphere, their winter solstice happens in June, when the Northern Hemisphere is marking its summer solstice.
Scandinavia celebrates St. Lucia’s Day, a festival of lights.
The “arrival of winter,” or Dong Zhi, is a Chinese festival where family gathers to celebrate the year so far. Traditional foods include tang yuan, sweet rice balls with a black sesame filling. It’s believed to have its origins in post-harvest celebrations.
Researchers stationed in in Antarctica even have their own traditions, which may include an icy plunge into the polar waters. They celebrate “midwinter” with festive meals, movies and sometimes homemade gifts.