This is unquestionably Demi Moore’s year.
After a superstar career and iconic movies like Ghost, G.I. Jane, Indecent Proposal, Disclosure, A Few Good Men, St. Elmo’s Fire, About Last Night, and countless others, she has finally received her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress for The Substance which also won her lead actress prizes so far at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. In her Globes speech she noted this was the first show business award she had gotten for her acting in a career that stretches back four decades and won early notice in Stanley Donen’s 1984 Blame It On Rio playing Michael Caine’s daughter, a movie she tells me in our conversation for my Deadline video series, The Actor’s Side, could not be made today.
We talk about all of it and why now in her 60’s a role like the daring one she has in The Substance is so important, and has had such resonance. I told her I call it Ozempic: The Movie but as she says it has so much to say about our quixotic desire for youth and self-love among many other themes in this horror comedy that puts it all in front of the mirror.
We also discuss her role in the new series Landman as Jon Hamm’s wife, and if season two will bring more substantial screen time, as well as genuine talk of a long awaited sequel to St. Elmo’s Fire exactly 40 years after its release made Moore and the rest of the cast stars. She is anxious to see where her character would be today. And I couldn’t resist asking her what she thought about the infamous Will Smith/Chris Rock slap at the Oscars after Rock invoked G.I. Jane as a joke about Smith’s wife’s appearance.
It’s clear Hollywood wants more of Moore and she is on her way to the Oscars.
To watch our conversation and to get the ‘actor’s side’ of things from Demi Moore just click on the link above.
Watch for more episodes of The Actor’s Side every week this Oscar season.