Demi Moore gets candid about full-frontal nudity with Margaret Qualley in The Substance

Demi Moore and her dog Pilaf attend the photo call for The Substance at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 20, 2024 in Cannes, France. Photo / Getty Images

Demi Moore has opened up about baring all in her new film The Substance, admitting it was a “vulnerable experience” filming full-frontal nudity.

The actress, 61, attended the Cannes Film Festival this week to promote the feminist body horror flick The Substance alongside her co-stars Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.

At the Cannes Film Festival press conference for the film on Monday, Moore got candid about going nude in several scenes for the film, while praising her co-stars for making her feel comfortable on set.

“Going into it, it was really spelled out - the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story,” the G.I. Jane actress shared. “And it was a very vulnerable experience and just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”

In the film, Moore plays a fading celebrity who turns to a black market drug called “the substance” - a cell-replicating device that creates a younger, better version of herself, played by Qualley.

Both Qualley and Moore display full-frontal nudity in the film, which focuses on the female body and the discourse that often surrounds it.

Moore credited Qualley with being a big help on set, particularly with regard to making her feel comfortable while filming the often unnerving scenes.

“I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with. We obviously were quite close - naked - and we also got a lot of levity in those moments [from] how absurd those certain situations were,” she revealed. “But ultimately, it’s just about really directing your communication and mutual trust.”

Throughout the film, Moore’s character becomes more and more disfigured as her other half Qualley abuses her. By the end of the movie, Moore is left a humpbacked abomination.

“It was very strange,” Moore said, as she reflected on the experience. The actress wore prosthetics both on set and at the premiere screening on Monday.

She revealed that one of her closest comforts on set was her beloved pooch. “My dog still recognised me. It was my touchstone of reality,” she said.

In recent weeks, her pup, Pilaf, has stolen hearts across the globe, sitting front-row with the actress at the Gucci cruise runway show and posing for pictures on the Croisette.

Dennis Quaid, Coralie Fargeat, Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore attend the red-carpet showing of The Substance at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2024 in Cannes, France. Photo / Getty Images

Cannes Film Festival went crazy for The Substance at its premiere on Sunday night, with the audience giving the film an 11-minute standing ovation, the longest so far at the festival.

In an interview with Variety, the film’s director Coralie Fargeat discussed the the movie’s feminist themes, saying it is “the perfect vehicle to express the violence all these women’s issues are about”.

She added, “It’s a little stone in the huge wall we still have to build regarding this issue, and to be honest, I hope my film will also be one of the stones of that wall. That’s really what I intended to do with it.”