Demi Moore caps career comeback with Oscar nomination

Since Demi Moore burst onto screens as a teenager on a soap opera in 1981, she has become a megastar, amassed a fortune (she was once the highest-paid actress in the world), and been the point of illuminating fierce (and often critical) conversations. on women’s bodies. On Thursday, at 62, she earned her first Oscar nomination for best actress for her role in “The Substance,” the body horror satire with a feminist message. It’s a once-unexpected step for a woman a producer once derided as a “popcorn actress.”

Moore’s role as a fading celebrity seeking a shortcut to youth earned him some of the best reviews of his career and a Golden Globes win that undoubtedly boosted his chances at the academy, especially when she delivered a speech burning with emotion. Visibly shocked by the ceremony earlier this month, she noted that she had worked in the sector for more than four decades, with few accolades to her name. The recognition, she said, offered “the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I belong.”

Moore first made a name for himself with ’80s Brat Pack fare like “St. Elmo’s Fire,” and was nominated for a Globe in 1991 for the hit romance “Ghost.” Hits like “Indecent Proposal” and “Striptease,” which brought her a then-record salary of $12.5 million, as well as her marriage to fellow actor Bruce Willis, made her a Hollywood phenomenon in the 1990s.

But the perception of her as just a commercial artist, symbolized by the producer’s comment, “eaten away at me over time,” she told the Globes. She had thought she might be done with acting, but what she called “the magical, daring, courageous, original and absolutely bonkers script” of “The Substance” brought her back.

French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s brash, bloody film “The Substance” was an unlikely Oscar contender; Academy voters don’t tend to go for gore. But this year was an exception: the film is in the running for best film, while Fargeat also earned nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay.