Demi Moore on the U.S. Election: ‘America Is Built on Puritans, Religious Fanatics and Criminals’

While visiting Paris to present the French premiere of “The Substance” and receive a career tribute at the French Cinematheque, Demi Moore linked Coralie Fargeat‘s bold body horror film to the themes undergirding the U.S. electoral nail-biter now occupying everyone’s minds.

“America is built on Puritans, religious fanatics and criminals,” she said from the stage of the French Cinematheque on Tuesday. “[And] you’re kind of seeing [as much] in our election right now.”

Indeed, the Hollywood icon made a distinction between the European sensibility that informed “The Substance” and the pervading mentality that the movie has tried to subvert.

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“Sexuality is always taboo,” she continued. “And there’s a lot of fear in America around the body. That’s something I’ve never understood or related to. I’ve certainly stirred the pot in a few of the films I’ve chosen, which is partly because [I’ve never understood that fear] of the body. It never made sense why we can celebrate the body in art, but fear it in cinema.”

With their critical and box-office hit, Moore and “The Substance” writer-director Fargeat sought to shatter those taboos by casting them into stark, florescent light.

“When we choose to hide ourselves, when we fear being seen, we create isolation,” said Moore. “And that creates loneliness. There is greater liberation when you are willing to allow others to see you in all the parts of you, not just the parts that you want them see.”

“Being someone of a certain age,” she continued, “there was greater value in showing oneself with complete abandon. Being willing to be seen with flaws, with imperfections, [as someone that is] clearly not 20 or 30 years old, being a little bit more ‘loosely wrapped.’”

“What moved me was the harshness that we can have against ourselves,” she said. “That violence that we can have against ourselves, which I felt had never really been explored. That felt risky, scary. Personally, it certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone.”

And though “The Substance” engages with those themes with an ample serving of blood and guts, Moore was keen to spotlight her director’s uncommon perspective.

“I’ve been asked, could a man direct, have directed this,” said Moore. “And yes, maybe a man could, but I don’t think a man could have written [it].”

“This is such a personal exploration,” she said. “[If viewers were surprised by Fargeat’s] visual style, her symbolic style, and the way in which she used sound, that’s just because there hasn’t been enough time for women yet up until now.”

“I want us to quit being surprised [about women’s potential]” Moore added, to great applause.

The filmmaker echoed those sentiments shortly thereafter.

“The film is totally personal,” Fargeat told Variety. “It is really what I have lived my own life regarding body image and the expectations of what it is to be a good woman, what you have to look like and how you have to behave.  So, yeah, it’s a very personal journey about how this has impacted my whole being.”

And if “The Substance” was born, in no small part, of the post-2016 #MeToo era, Fargeat hopes to develop her follow-up in a hopeful social climate.

“The film was a big ‘fuck you,’ that’s for sure,” she said. “So I can only wish that we’re going to enter a world of hope, one that celebrates women’s rights as well. Unfortunately, the film’s subject might still hold true in ten or 20, or 50 years, unless we see a real revolution.”

“That’s not in my hands at the moment,” she added, reflecting on the “bubble and safe space” offered by the Paris Cinematheque tribute.

“But I’m trying to do what I can with my films!”