@Courtesy of MUBI

The Substance : Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You, only better in every way. You should try this new product, it’s called The Substance. IT CHANGED MY LIFE. With The Substance, you can generate another you: younger, more beautiful, more perfect. You just have to share time — one week for one, one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days each… Easy right? If you respect the balance… What could possibly go wrong?

Q: After such a prolific career, what is it about this script that resonated with you and made you want to be a part of The Substance? 

Demi Moore: First of all, it was an absolutely unique way of delving into this subject matter, something that scared me just enough to push me out of my comfort zone. Elisabeth is a richly complex character to play, someone I certainly hadn’t seen come across my desk before. I felt like the script was also exploring this idea of not just aging, but that violence that we can have against ourselves, which is such a relatable issue that we all share.

Q: Did you get the chance to do any prep work with Demi prior to filming the film? And how were there discussions between the two of you regarding your roles? 

Margaret Qualley: Demi and I both prepped a lot. For me, it was so much about the physicality of Sue, trying to figure out what her body looks like and how she moves, trying to reach some form that could represent an idea of perfection in Coralie’s mind. The experience was very much about trying to feel like my body could move through the world in a painless way. If you’re entering the world as a fully formed human without having had any experiences, you wouldn’t carry any pain in your body in the same way. Demi and I took our prep, we were both setting out to achieve different things whilst doing it with the same intent and full throttle, putting ourselves into it.

Demi Moore : It didn’t really take us very much. We did a few activities together: we worked with someone using a ball, it was less about it having any specific intention, but just deepening our connection. It did require very little conversation. It’s almost as if we looked out for each other and almost gave that connection without us having to overanalyze it.

Q: Has working on this film given you any new perspectives on body image in Hollywood or the pressures of maintaining a certain image?

Margaret Qualley: One of the reasons why I gravitated towards the script was because it talks about topics that, unfortunately, are super present in everybody’s lives. In this elegant, fantastical way that makes it exciting. I grew up a dancer, and then I modeled for a second, then I started acting. Every single step of the path has been an incredible amount of pressure on the idea of being perfect or having this unattainable, especially within the dance world.

I’m so lucky to be living in a time when so many of those standards are being broken down and reinvented. Everybody’s dealing with these themes to some degree in their life. Playing Sue was certainly entering the eye of the storm. It was challenging, mentally and physically, and somewhat exhausting. I’m glad that I had to deal with all these things head on, I do feel stronger because of it.

Demi Moore: I don’t know if it changed my perspective on beauty standards. What it did for me was just expand again on that idea of the circumstances in Hollywood and in society as a whole. In the process of doing this film, it allowed me on a personal level to look at those areas of judgments that I was holding against myself, where I was pushing and holding myself to those standards that are not necessarily realistic, versus the beauty of focusing and celebrating all that I am. That, for me, was one of the most powerful parts of this film.

I feel like I’ve walked away a little bit more liberated within myself from this experience. We could be a part of creating a cultural shift by just expanding awareness, by doing something that is provocative and creating conversation. It’s what we do to ourselves that creates our experience and our reality in life. Being able to create change when we can stop looking on the outside of us and go within ourselves, that’s happening. As women, we are finding more value in who we are at various ages, sizes, races, cultures. The more we’re taking ownership, the more the outside world is opening up. Who says that you’re less desirable after 50? Who says that’s the truth?

@Courtesy of MUBI

Q: What was the moment when you realized you could totally trust Coralie Fargeat as a director, and why? 

Demi Moore: I trusted her material. More than anything, it was about trusting myself, committing and being able to trust myself, being able to go all in. I really trusted the story that she wanted to tell. I fully trusted Coralie when I saw the film for the first time in Cannes.

Q: What is it like to embody a character that represents the beauty that many women want to have, but at the same time, that beauty is hostile? How did that make you feel?

Margaret Qualley: I have a strange character to play, to be honest. I’ve never had an experience like this. It’s very bizarre because she’s ultimately quite soulless. To amplify that, it was pretty exhausting. But I feel I’m a part of a greater message. I’m being a good little soldier in attempts to try to tell this story, and I’ll be the bad for her good.

Q: What was the most fun scene to shoot in the movie? 

Margaret Qualley: The shoot was quite challenging. It was over five months, oftentimes, we were doing one eighth of a page a day. It was that slow, that specific. Whenever we would be able to shoot a couple of pages, that would be the most exciting because it would mean that you would get to run with something. The dance sequence for me was an opportunity to prep something that I knew was going to be filmed rather quickly in succession. I actually had a lot of fun doing my talk show scene because of that  back and forth. Anything where you could take off running for just a moment was fun for me. One of the most rewarding moments for me in the film was when Demi and I are both conscious at the time. It was hard to be present with her on set over and over again without having the opportunity to act with her. To be able to do that and look alive was really thrilling.

Demi Moore: We finally actually had a scene where we were both conscious. I really looked forward to that, even if it was such a brutal sequence, a very difficult scene to shoot. It was a joy, especially for me, because I had so many scenes where I was just alone. The other, for me, was the cooking sequence. It was just so mad and gross beyond belief.

@Courtesy of MUBI

Q: You often choose unconventional roles instead of the easier path that Hollywood offers. After working on The Substance, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness as examples, what draws you to these complex portrays? 

Margaret Qualley: I choose my roles as much as my roles choose me. There’s casting directors and directors, and I’m quite literally being chosen to play these complex, strange, roles. And then, of course, I am gravitating towards specific roles as well. I’ve tried many times to be in a rom-com, or a romantic lead in a silly movie. I’d love to do it. I’m tired. Things work out the way that they do when you just take meaning from it and try to grow.

Q: What discussions did you both have in order to have certain elements of your performance sync up? What elements did you feel like absolutely needed to be different so Elizabeth and Sue were unique in their own way? 

Margaret Qualley: I think we have a lot in common and a lot different, we didn’t work too hard to define those things. It was more natural than that. The thing that we both had in common was just a big commitment. There isn’t a more committed actress, a more hardworking, compelling actress or supportive than Demi. She’s fantastic to work with.

Demi Moore: We’re both willing to get dirty, look messy, physically go all in in ways that aren’t necessarily glamorous. We share that pushing the edge. We were also working within the confines of a script that was very, very specific. We just understood it and knew it. Our first scene where we’re making the switch and we’re both having to be nude on this cold tile floor for hours, being in that mutual state of vulnerability, it took already the connection that we had, the understanding of the little things. The rest was much more the internal work that we did separately that was really about what’s driving these two women. Because iSue is in her physical body, she’s creating her own experience, creating separation with each time that we switched.

Q: What was it like to have to be physical in the film, but in such radically different ways? 

Demi Moore: A lot of it was finding some of the physicality as you go. I didn’t until I really had all of the prosthetics on. It truly unfolded. I have to say, there was some of it I didn’t even think through until we really got there with it. For both of us, in different ways, was really exhausting, really physically challenging. For me, doing a month hunched, it was something I couldn’t have anticipated. There were so many things that challenged my logical mind when we were in it. Our job was to ground the heart of this in a reality so that it didn’t become just a cartoon. Once we could grasp where Coralie wanted to go, some of the extreme edges of it, it’s really going back to the foundation of creating a real woman.

Q: How have you responded to the way that the film has been received? 

Margaret Qualley: It’s wonderful. I’m really stoked about it. We worked really hard, when you’re working in a small studio every day for five months, you feel crazy, and you’re like: “What the hell are we doing? Why are we doing this to ourselves?” It’s very gratifying when something takes life of its own and reaches people

Demi Moore: If I go all the way back to our first time sitting through it in Cannes, I feel like there is still a shock and an absolute awe and gratitude at this experience because I didn’t have any expectations. I really had let it go. I feel like the fact that we have participated in something that people are wanting to go to see in theater is beyond any of my expectations. They’re wanting a cinema experience. That, for me, is another layer of added joy to this.

@Courtesy of MUBI

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Here’s the trailer of The Substance.