Demi Moore's "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" co-stars are proud of her for her work in "The Substance."
The actress, who is Oscar-nominated for her performance in the Coralie Fargeat-directed film, had a virtual reunion with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu for Vanity Fair, in which they discussed "The Substance," their connection to the film's themes and more.
"The Substance" follows Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former A-list celebrity past her prime. After she is fired from her TV aerobics show, she's offered a black market drug that promises to transform her into a much younger version of herself, which comes with unforeseen side effects.
Demi Moore delivers powerful speech while accepting 1st Golden GlobeBarrymore kicked the discussion off by introducing the four of them and said, "You've got 'Charlie's Angels' here, but we've done so many things other than 'Charlie's Angels.'"
"So whether you see us as the Angels or not, we are four women who love each other, respect each other, have known each other, have worked together and celebrate female friendship," she added. "And really what was an easy 'yes' for all of us was to come together and talk to Demi and about Demi in this performance."
Moore then talked to her former co-stars about the work she put into "The Substance" and how Elisabeth's story paralleled her own experience as an actress. She particularly recalled how she felt "very lost" after making "Full Throttle."
"I was thinking about that because in ['The Substance'], it's being reflected that she's not as valuable," Moore said. "In ['Full Throttle'], we had this scene that [director] McG added, with me being in a bikini, which became this kind of big media interpretation -- that ironically was attached to me, as if I was about my body versus it being just a part of the story that we were telling: this great cinematic moment of Cameron and I being on the beach."
She continued, "I felt more of the experience that my character [in 'The Substance'] goes through in my 40s than I feel today. I didn't quite fit anywhere. I wasn't 30. I wasn't 20, but I wasn't what at that time people thought of as somebody 40. I felt very lost."
Moore said that the script for "The Substance" came at a pivotal time for her.
"I felt like I didn't belong and that perhaps my time was complete," Moore said. "I wasn't feeling meaningful work was coming, and I didn't feel like I needed to work to work, my own success didn't drive me. And I felt a grief at this idea that it was like, 'Is this done?'"
She added, "It was such a low moment of feeling not connected."
Diaz, who said she was moved by the film, spoke about its complex layers -- specifically the theme about the objectification of women.
"All women, we are conditioned to be objectified -- period," she said. "Whether we are movie stars [or not], it's just every woman. Obviously it's more extreme in our circumstances, because we're projected onto a screen and literally objectified. We've had dolls made out of us. It's just so innate. It's so ingrained in us. We bow down to that. We serve that objectification. We try to meet its request in so many ways."
Demi Moore's daughters congratulate their mom on her 1st Oscar nominationDiaz continued, "In watching you give this performance, you don't have to ask anybody's permission. It's as if there was a constitution written in the film industry that laid out what the film industry was, and everybody has been abiding by it for the last however many decades."
"Y'all went in and just shredded it to pieces and said, I do not agree with this constitution. We are rewriting this," she added.
Liu echoed Diaz and told Moore, "You've always had it in you and in all of the work that you've done. There's so much vulnerability in the strength that you are able to put on camera."
"It was done in a way where you really captured that rawness: that feeling of being insecure but also comfortable with yourself, but then realizing that other people aren't comfortable with yourself," Liu added.
The four women ended their conversation with Liu, Diaz and Barrymore praising Moore a final time for her performance.
"Thank you for making this movie," Diaz added. "It just brings, the layers are just being peeled back. It's just a big onion and I'm excited to keep the conversation going wherever we can."
Moore joined Barrymore, Diaz and Liu in the 2003 "Charlie's Angels" sequel film, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," as Madison Lee, a former Angel turned independent operative.
In addition to Moore's Academy Award nomination for best actress for "The Substance," she won the Golden Globe earlier this month for the film.
