As The Substance wins the Oscar for Best Makeup & Hairstyling, revisiting Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley's prosthetic nightmare
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley underwent intense transformations for The Substance. As the film wins the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, let's revisit the actresses' prosthetic nightmare for the Coralie Fargeat directorial.
Whether or not Demi Moore was snubbed of the Best Actress title for her role in The Substance at the 2025 Oscars is debatable, but one category where the movie emerged as the clear winner was the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Award. Pierre-Olivier Person, Stephanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli deservedly won the Oscars for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for the body horror.
Demi Moore sat through a six to eight-hour makeup process for The Substance
The Substance wouldn't have been the phenomenon that it became if not for its makeup and styling. Coralie Fargeat's film is a darkly comic satire that tackles beauty standards, aging, and the entertainment industry with gruesome body horror sequences.
Pierre Olivier Persin told the LA Times that Demi underwent a makeup process that could take six to eight hours to turn into an older version of her character in the film.
¡°She was with us all the way through, which is really rare. She was never looking at her mobile, for instance. Some people are looking down when you try to apply difficult, complicated makeup, and you keep going, ¡®Oh, sorry, can you look up for me, please?¡¯ And it¡¯s really boring when you do that for three hours,¡± he says. ¡°But Demi was just looking very close in the mirror always, all the way through, and that was really great. That¡¯s the best you can have.¡±
He told the publication that he created realistic face masks and prosthetics for Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, using life casts and scans of the actors to achieve accuracy, and then applied silicone or foam latex appliances to their faces.
To ensure a natural look, Persin studied how the actors' faces moved and wrinkled and meticulously painted and blended the edges of the prosthetics. He also matched the actors' skin tones by creating custom skin samples and adding details like freckles and veins. Despite efforts to make the actors comfortable, Persin admitted that applying prosthetics and wearing full-body suits can be challenging and uncomfortable.
Margaret Qualley revealed her skin took a year to recover from prosthetics damage
Margaret Qualley earlier opened up about the damaging effects of the prosthetics she wore for her role in the horror movie. In an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Qualley revealed that the prosthetics caused significant skin damage, including acne, that took about a year to recover from.
margaret qualley in the substance (2024) pic.twitter.com/Cza4BlfXwT
¡ª screencaps (@screenscaps) November 2, 2024
The damage was so severe that filmmakers had to adjust their shooting schedule to avoid showing her face. Qualley even incorporated her acne into her next film, Kinds of Kindness, using it as a character trait.
More about the film
In The Substance, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a celebrated actress and fitness guru who, after being fired on her 50th birthday, discovers a black market drug promising to restore her youth. The drug helps her discover a younger version of herself, Sue (Margaret Qualley), who emerges grotesquely from Elisabeth's spine.
As their toxic relationship intensifies, their bodies gruesomely deteriorate, serving as a cautionary tale of going against nature and pursuing eternal youth.
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As an Entertainment Content Writer with 3+ Years of experience, I have been keeping a keen eye on who wore what. A self confessed Koreaboo, I am your fangirl next door. Ps: I take pride in saying that I grew up watching "It's Controversial" as a kid.
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