Oscar favourite Demi Moore has opened up about her return to the spotlight following her role The Substance, a body horror film about the curse of ageing in Hollywood.

It’s arguably her most critically acclaimed film since Ghost in 1990, but Moore says her hiatus from mainstream fame was not necessarily by choice. Hollywood is not a hospitable environment for women who dare to age or prioritise other parts of their life like starting a family.

‘For a very long time a woman’s value was tied to her fertility, and when we got past a certain age, somehow we were seen as not desirable,’ Moore told Screen Daily. ‘The irony is I feel so much more whole and complete within myself now than I ever have.’

Grossing more than $77 million worldwide (£60.6 million), The Substance is Moore’s biggest cinema success in more than two decades. Her performance has earned her a Golden Globe, a Screen Actor’s Guild Award, a Critics Choice Award, a BAFTA nomination and an Oscar nomination that could well become another victory on Sunday.

She has, in many ways, been given a second crack at Hollywood and she’s seizing it with both hands. Along with her celebrated return came streams of praise for her ‘new’ appearance. Somewhat ironically, she has been lauded for ‘ageing backwards’ for looking ‘very youthful’ and told she ‘oozes elegance’ with her ‘age-defying’ appearance.

At first glance it might seems as though these remarks are compliments, but they are just as lumbered with misogyny as any criticism might be (and of course, as is the life of a woman in Hollywood, there’s plenty of criticism too). The implication that Moore only oozes elegance because she is defying her age is exactly what it looks like: ageism. Is that not the trope at the very heart of the film she’s winning awards for?

We are still, in ripe old 2025, only measuring beauty and desirability in relation to youthfulness. If you’re young, you must do all you can to hold on to your youth, hence why there’s a disturbing trend of anti-ageing tips for children as young as 12 and 13 on TikTok. If you’re older, you must either surrender your desirability, as Moore said herself, or battle against the odds and invest thousands of pounds in your face and body in the hope of passing as ‘young’ again.

It’s an expensive, demoralising cycle that has knock on effects on women of all ages. Then there’s the less flattering commentary on Moore’s ‘new’ appearance with claims that she has left fans ‘shocked’ and that she’s undergone ‘£250,000 worth of surgery’, with some ‘experts’ suggesting she and has ‘overdone’ her cheeks which now look ‘too big’ for her proportions.

Some compliments, in fact, only exist in relation to her past appearance, referring to pictures of Moore from the Fendi show during Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris in 2021. Appearing on the catwalk in Kim Jones’ Spring Summer presentation, Moore fell prey to a predictable online debate about whether she’d had ‘botched’ cosmetic surgery or ‘terrible’ make up. ‘I wouldn’t have thought that was Demi Moore without the headline,’ wrote one person at the time. ‘Is that all bad fillers? Or is there some horrible contouring happening there also?’

Another wrote, ‘Demi Moore plastic surgery. That’s a shame! I wish women would allow themselves to age gracefully.’ Some recent reports have praised the actress’s ‘youthful glow’ which stands ‘in stark contrast’ to her ‘unrecognisable look’ at the Fendi show. One has gone as far as to suggest Moore has finally mastered just the right amount of Botox – not so much that it’s cause for concern, but just enough to keep her looking much younger than she is.

‘There might be some left,’ they wrote, ‘but it’s not as obvious as before. There are other telltale signs she’s relaxing on the fillers and Botox.’ Adding that ‘Demi’s a natural beauty’ and her friends and loved ones ‘always wondered why she wanted to undergo all these cosmetic procedures in the first place’.

Moore has, for what it’s worth, denied having any cosmetic procedures in the past. In 2007, she vehemently denied spending ‘£200,000 remodelling her face and body’. ‘It’s completely false, I’ve never had it done,’ she told French Marie Claire. ‘But I would never judge those who have.’ She added that she did not like the idea of undergoing surgery ‘to hold up the ageing process’ and said ‘it’s a way to combat your neurosis, the scalpel won’t make you happy’.

‘That said,’ Moore continued with a prophetic Substance-esque remark, ‘the day when I start crying when I look at myself in the mirror might be the day when I’m less adamant about not having it done.’

Of course, almost two decades have passed since Moore made those comments. Now, tabloid sources say that while the Hollywood obsession with surgery has gotten ‘way out of control’ in recent years,  ‘Demi isn’t falling for it.’

‘She’s still focused on maintaining her youthful glow,’ one report read. ‘But she’s opting for less invasive things like micro needling, facials and just taking care of herself with diet, exercise and getting plenty of sleep.’

How ‘good or bad’ Moore looks, what she’s had done or whether she takes a moral stance against cosmetic procedures are all besides the point. She is still a woman who was sidelined in her career for years and made to feel ‘undesirable’ for ageing, then criticised time and time again for endless alleged procedures, only to finally receive praise and respect when she’s considered to have aged just the right amount.

We can all appreciate the message The Substance presents, even if it doesn’t necessarily move it forward or offer any new critique. We even appreciate it enough to make a revered icon of Moore in the second wind of her career, but we still seem incapable of learning anything from it. Moore is just as much a victim of the Hollywood ageing narrative as Elizabeth Sparks is, even if, thankfully, her body remains safely intact.

Accepting her Golden Globe in January, Moore herself said, ‘I’ll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting. In those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough, we’re pretty enough, we’re successful enough, or basically just not enough. I had a woman say to me, “Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.”’

It would be a lot easier to put that message into practice if the measuring stick wasn’t constantly used to poke us all into a corner and whack our self-esteem – but we’ll keep trying.