-Welcome back, everybody.
Our first guest tonight is an Emmy- and Golden
Globe-nominated actress. You know her
from iconic movies like "Ghost," "A Few Good Men,"
and "G.I. Jane," plus the FX series "Feud:
Capote Versus the Swans." She stars in "The Substance," which is in theaters
September 20th. Let's take a look. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Please welcome back to the show
Demi Moore, everybody. ♪♪ ♪♪ -Hi.
-Hello, Demi. -Hello.
-Demi, you made a
very special movie. -I did.
-It's really something. It's like nothing
I've ever seen before. -That is true.
-Yes. -That is true.
It's quite a ride. -And this is a movie that was
at the Cannes Film Festival. And it was at Toronto
just this week, correct? -Yes.
I just came in from Toronto. -Midnight viewing.
-Yes. -And I just heard
people lost their minds. And I would imagine
seeing it at midnight with a theater full of people, it must have just been
exceptional. -It's an incredible experience
being -- first of all, it's a genre
I wasn't familiar with. But for those who are -- -For people who didn't know,
it's a rom-com, obviously. [ Laughter ] -Just some light entertainment. There is some laughs in it,
though. -I believe it. I mean,
I believe people laughed. I saw it and I will say,
you know, one of the downsides of --
it's very exciting when you host a show like this because people send you
links to movies. And while I was watching this
movie, I really had a sense of, "Oh, I really wish I was
watching this with an audience." -Definitely I encourage
people to see it in the theater because it's
a powerful shared experience. -Yes. I mean, it's interesting too, because you mentioned
you haven't worked in the genre before. So when you see a script
like this, like, can you tell right away?
I mean, it must be impossible to conceive what it's going to
look like. -First of all, I mean,
for those who don't know, so it's dealing with aging
and the kind of male perspective
of the idealized woman that we
as women have bought into. And on paper, because it goes to such a unique
place in telling this story, I looked at
and I thought, "Well, this, if it works,
could be amazing or it could be a disaster." -Yeah. -There's definitely a disaster
version of this movie. Where right now
I'm sitting here being like, "So that looked like fun."
-Yes. Crawling on the ground
and a hunchback. I don't want to give
too much away. -Yeah. Well, it is interesting because you play sort of
a fitness expert, sort of a -- like a jazzercise,
if you will, aerobics. -Yes, kind of,
I think, you know, Jane Fonda in her
Jane Fonda video workout days was I think
the writer/director's, you know, inspiration. -And so I should note, there's a couple of things
that seem very taxing to me, insofar as what you had to go
through for this film. One, you had to actually do
a lot of aerobics. -We did have to learn
some routines. -Yeah. I mean, that was not --
I mean, they're not CGI. You're out there doing aerobics. -No,
we were doing those moves. -Yes. And then there's a lot
of sort of what seems to me
to be practical makeup. I would imagine you
were both moving a lot and then
also having to sit still for a great amount of time.
-Yes. There's quite a bit
of prosthetics. And so I sat in the chair anywhere from 6 to 9.5 hours
with a good, you know, two hours
to take it off. -Wow. That is a real
commitment to film. -I will just say it's a much
easier thing to read on paper. -Yes. -But I'm so glad I had
the experience. I feel like I have
tremendous respect for those who've really gone all in where
the whole film is that way. I may be thinking twice
before jumping into one again. -Next one? Yeah.
-Yes. -You know,
the other thing I'll say, because you're
so fantastic in this film. -Thank you. -You act the lights out, but also
when you read the script, there's not a ton of dialogue. -No, I mean, in fact,
in a way, it's a very intimate experience
of someone really being with themselves and really --
which is different. You have to really show up
and have done, I think, a lot of prep work
to have a full life of the person you're playing so that the subtleties
can come through just through your eyes and very, you know,
small gestures. I mean,
most of my scenes were alone. -And like I said,
you feel -- you do see the whole breadth
of the character. This is, again, somebody who's
being replaced at their job because they're 50. There's a younger version
of you, played by Margaret Qualley,
who's wonderful. Dennis Quaid plays
a fantastic creep in this film. -Yes, he does.
-Just a real -- I mean -- -And I will just warn everyone, the scene with Dennis
eating the shrimp, which you haven't seen, is by far the most violent scene
in the whole movie. -Okay.
-He ate, I think, 4 pounds of shrimp, tearing the
heads off with sound effects. -Practical shrimp.
He was eating practical shrimp. Yeah.
By the way, it's so funny. There's so many worse things
in this film than Dennis Quaid eating shrimp. Like, I'm like, "That's
what you thought was scary?" Like then I will not be
asking you out to dinner because I have
bad table manners. -It -- Okay.
-It is really -- It's really something else. You know, you play --
this is -- Again, it is about, you know, aging
and who comes next. And sometimes
that transition is very lovely. When this film was
at Cannes, you played --
you were the -- What is the name of the award
you gave out? -It's like the godmother.
-You were the godmother. I'm going to read it to make
sure -- the Trophée Chopard. This is when an established --
a legend like yourself gives out an award to a male and female actor who
are sort of the next generation. -Yes, and Mike and Sophie -- I think maybe I took it
a little too seriously. -How so?
-Like, I was like, "I'm really going to
be there for you." -Yeah.
-They're like, "Yeah, great." -"I am your godmother for life." -Call me if you need me. They're like, "Okay, we're just here looking good,
wearing some diamonds." -Do you --
If you could go back, because you've been doing
this a long time, and what advice
would you give yourself as a younger actor? -That's always
an interesting question. Because I think if I look back
when I was younger, I recognize, like, how much
more afraid I was. And so I'd probably just say
it's okay. -Yeah.
-I would say it's okay to make mistakes. In fact, it's the best thing
that could probably happen. -Well, that's an interesting -- People ask me the same question,
and I always say, I would hate to go back because I wouldn't
want to say something that would take me
off the path I ended up on. -And I agree with that.
-And I would be bad -- Like, I'm both bad at giving
and receiving advice. And so at any age,
I would screw it up because to some degree I think,
right, the ignorance, the fear is
an important motor. -It's all of the very things that get us to
where we are today. Like, I think I truly believe
in the, you know, point of view that everything is
happening for you, not to you. And when you look at life
through that lens of perception, you can then open yourself up to what any given situation
is trying to give you. Like, what is this
in service to? -Great advice.
I have a lot more to ask you. Will you stick around? We'll be right back with more
from Demi after this.