Demi Moore has returned to the big screen in the body horror movie The Substance, and she’s been reflecting on both her immense success and the pitfalls of Hollywood.
In 1996, Moore was arguably at the height of fame when she received a reported $12.5 million salary to star as an FBI secretary-turned-stripper in Striptease. She followed up the polarizing flick, which costarred Burt Reynolds, with G.I. Jane, another film met by lackluster reviews.
Moore reflected on her record-breaking salary for Striptease and how her marriage to ex-husband and Die Hard icon Bruce Willis influenced her achievement while appearing on The New York Times‘ “The Interview” podcast.
“Well, with Striptease, it was as if I had betrayed women, and with G.I. Jane, it was as if I had betrayed men,” Moore said of the backlash she felt after reaching the peak of her financial success.
“But I think the interesting piece is that when I became the highest-paid actress — why is it that, at that moment, the choice was to bring me down?” she said on the podcast.
Moore explained that she didn’t “take this personally,” adding, “I think anyone who had been in the position that was the first to get that kind of equality of pay would probably have taken a hit. But because I did a film that was dealing with the world of stripping and the body, I was extremely shamed.”
Willis, now 69, was one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood at the same time, which influenced Moore’s expectations for her own career. “It wasn’t about comparing myself to him,” she said. “Yes, I saw what he got paid. It was really more about: ‘Why shouldn’t I? If I’m doing the same amount of work, why shouldn’t I?'”
While pursuing equal pay, Moore experienced persistent misogyny.
“And it’s no different than when I did the cover for Vanity Fair pregnant,” she told the podcast, referring to the now-iconic 1991 cover shot by Annie Leibovitz. “I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, why women when they were pregnant needed to be hidden?”
She continued, “Why is it that we have to deny that we had sex? That’s the fear, right, that if you show your belly, that means, oh, my gosh, you’ve had sex.”
As well as facing public backlash after becoming the highest-paid actress, Moore felt physically influenced to stop altering her body drastically for acting roles.
“After I finished G.I. Jane is when I had a huge shift, because I had manipulated my body, I had changed it multiple times, through just pure force and discipline, and when I finished that film, I was so kind of worn down in this battle that I had been in that I finally surrendered,” she told the outlet.
“And I feel like I just started to ask to be my natural size because I didn’t know what it was,” she continued. “I literally couldn’t go in a gym. I couldn’t control food in that way, and I really experienced the gift of surrender.”
