Demi Moore made a tough admission in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes as she picked up the Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical trophy for her role in The Substance.
She opened by telling the crowd she ‘really wasn’t expecting that’ and that she’d ‘been doing this a long time’, noting that in more than 45 years of acting it was her first award.
While she has won some awards previously in her career, her previous win from a major awards association came as part of an ensemble accolade from the Independent Spirit Awards for Margin Call.
This is her first solo award from a major association, and her first Golden Globe after four nominations, with her last nominations before The Substance coming in 1997.
During her acceptance speech Moore told the crowd that she’d once been told she was a ‘popcorn actress’ and took that to mean winning Golden Globes wasn’t going to happen in her career.
“30 years ago I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn actress’, and at that time I made that mean this was something I wasn’t allowed to have,” Moore said as she clutched her Golden Globe.
It’s the first major solo award in Demi Moore’s career (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Moët & Chandon)
“I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but I couldn’t be acknowledged and I bought in and I believed that. That corroded me over time to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete, maybe I’d done what I was supposed to do.
“As I was at kind of a low point I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance, and the universe told me that you’re not done.”
She then paid tribute to the movie’s director Coralie Fargeat, and for her co-star Margaret Qualley and ‘all of the people who stood by me’ and ‘believed in me when I haven’t believed in myself’.
She said: “In those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough, or pretty enough, or skinny enough, or successful enough or basically just not enough…
Moore said she’d once been called a ‘popcorn actress’ by a producer, and took that to mean winning Golden Globes wasn’t really for her. Whoever said that turned out to be wrong… (Christopher Polk/GG2025/Penske Media via Getty Images)
“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’.”
Moore celebrated her award as ‘a marker’ in her career which she loved ‘and being reminded that I do belong’, with the audience starting to cheer for her as she wrapped things up.
