Demi Moore got real about the intense scrutiny about her looks following her iconic bikini scene in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle!
While chatting with Michelle Yeoh for Interview magazine about her new film The Substance, the pair opened up about the Hollywood beauty standards. The 61-year-old actress praised the Everything Everywhere All at Once for her acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, saying it reminded her that “we can define where we want it to go and who we are.” She continued:
“We don’t have to fight against that, we just have to believe that something else is possible. To me, what’s exciting is, in the film, I’m representing a past ideal and not what my present is.”
Related: Kate Winslet Was Told To Hide Her ‘Belly Rolls’ While Filming Bikini Scene In New Movie!
Looking back, Demi noted she specifically struggled with her place in the business after working on the Charlie’s Angels 2003 sequel — all because of the chatter about her appearance. She called out one scene in particular, in which she meets Cameron Diaz’s character at a beach during a stakeout while wearing a black bikini. Watch (below):
The scene was instantly iconic as Demi showed everyone she still looked AMAZING! Unfortunately the reaction was the opposite of what it should have been. Instead of realizing older women could still be taking on bombshell or femme fatale roles, folks in Hollywood got confused about what to do with her!
Demi, who was 40 during filming, felt “there didn’t seem to be a place for” her in Hollywood after the “talk about” her looks. She told Michelle:
“What’s interesting is I felt it more when I hit my forties. I had done Charlie’s Angels, and there was a lot of conversation around this scene in a bikini, and it was all very heightened, a lot of talk about how I looked. And then I found that there didn’t seem to be a place for me. I didn’t feel like I didn’t belong. It’s more like I felt that feeling of, I’m not 20, I’m not 30, but I wasn’t yet what they perceived as a mother.”
At that time, Demi really started to question where she “fit in”:
“It was a time that felt, not dead, but flat.”
Like so many actresses, Michelle sadly understood the Ghost star’s experience. Unfortunately, there are still too many men — both on the fan side AND producers — who are incredibly harsh when it comes to a woman’s aging looks. And as she pointed out, the business is so “cruel” to women as they age, saying:
“Hollywood is cruel to women of that age, where you don’t find the scripts or the characters that resonate with you anymore. It’s either, you are the mother or you’re old enough not to be sexy in their eyes. It’s like, why can’t a 45-year-old, a 50-year-old, or 60-year-old, be sexy?”
Exactly!
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/Columbia Pictures/YouTube]