BEVERLY HILLS: Demi Moore won her first acting award in a career spanning five decades on Sunday, scooping a Golden Globe for the body-horror film “The Substance”.

The 62-year-old beat Amy Adams, Cynthia Erivo, Mikey Madison, Karla Sofia Gascon and Zendaya to win best actress in a musical or comedy film, a category that had been considered very competitive.

“I’m just in shock right now,” Moore said in her acceptance speech. “I’ve been doing this a long time, over 45 years. This is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor and I’m just so humbled and so grateful.” Moore, who began her acting career in the early 1980s, is known for films like “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “Ghost”, “Indecent Proposal” and “Striptease”.

Visibly surprised by her win, she said she had once been told by a producer 30 years ago that she was a “popcorn actress”.

“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,” Moore said.

“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, maybe I’ve done what I was supposed to do.” Moore, who was twice nominated for a Golden Globe in the 1990s, said she received the script for “The Substance” when she was at “a low point”.

“And the universe told me that you’re not done,” she said, adding her thanks to writer-director Coralie Fargeat and co-star Margaret Qualley.

In the movie, Moore plays an ageing TV fitness instructor who signs up for a mysterious medical regime that promises to create the perfect version of herself.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2025