Demi Moore says starring in 2003 action sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle left her questioning her place in Hollywood.
The actress, 61, played the villainous Madison Lee opposite Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz and had just entered her forties when the film was released.
Where she had been a big box office draw for decades and hailed as a sex symbol, she was taken aback by criticism over the way she looked in one scene where she had to wear a bikini.
Speaking to actress Michelle Yeoh for Interview magazine, she explained: “What’s interesting is I felt [criticism] more when I hit my 40s.
“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.
“Where do I fit in? It was a time that felt, not dead, but flat,” Moore continued. “I don’t know if I’ve ever done that when I’ve come up against something that I don’t understand exists as a limitation.
“There was a moment, I have to say, where I started to wonder, is this really what I should be doing? Maybe that part of my life is complete. Not even over, but complete. Then I realised, if I’m questioning it, then I need to inject it with energy so that I know for sure,” she added to the publication.
It appears that Moore could have the last laugh however as with her upcoming flick The Substance, described by The Guardian as a “grisly fantasy-parable of misogyny and body-objectification”.
While it received a mixed reaction when it made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, some critics feel it could see her be a contender at this year’s awards season.
