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Louise Thomas
Editor
Demi Moore has opened up about the health ordeal she faced while making her new horror movie The Substance.
In the film, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in the summer and earned an 11-minute standing ovation, Moore, 61, plays Elisabeth, a Hollywood star who has been sidelined by the industry due to her age. Elisabeth then decides to undergo an experimental treatment that creates a younger version of herself, played by Maid star Margaret Qualley.
Working on the project, which was directed by Coralie Fargeat, was a full-on experience for both performers, and in an interview with The LA Times, Moore revealed that she was diagnosed with shingles during a break in filming.
“To give you an idea of the intensity, my first week that I actually had off, where it was just Margaret working, I got shingles,” she told the paper. “And I then lost, like, 20 pounds.”
Shingles is an infection that causes a painful rash, according to the NHS.
Anyone who has previously had chickenpox can develop shingles. After having chickenpox, the virus remains in the nerve cells of the body and can lie dormant for years until it is reactivated, causing shingles.
Potential triggers for this can include a weakened immune system as a consequence of stress, illness, medical treatments or old age. It can take up to four weeks for the shingles rash to heal.
Moore’s co-star Qualley, 29, revealed that she also dealt with challenges while working on the project. “I had crazy acne for a full, long-ass time,” she told the paper.
When The Substance premiered at Cannes in May, Moore’s performance was hailed as a career best, with some critics speculating that the role could earn her the first Oscar nomination of her career.
The movie features full-frontal nudity, and Moore described filming those scenes as “a very vulnerable experience” that “required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish”.
She also credited Qualley with helping her to get through any potentially awkward moments.
“I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with,” she told a press conference at Cannes. “We obviously were quite close – naked – and we also got a lot of levity in those moments at how absurd those certain situations were.”
