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Demi Moore reflects on aging, acceptance and finding happiness within

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. And recently, I saw a new horror film that left me kind of speechless. It's called "The Substance." And my guest today, Demi Moore, who stars in the film, describes it as "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" meets "Death Becomes Her" with a Jane Fonda workout in it. It's about an aging actress who decides to use a black market drug to create a younger, better version of herself.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SUBSTANCE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Younger, more beautiful, more perfect - one single injection unlocks your DNA, starting a new cellular division that will release another version of yourself. This is the substance.

MOSLEY: Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an actress who clings to her last vestiges of fame by hosting an aerobic show. When her unscrupulous boss, played by Dennis Quaid, sets out to replace her with someone younger and hotter, on her 50th birthday no less, Moore's character decides to inject herself with the substance, a mysterious fluid that allows her to at least temporarily be a younger version of herself. What plays out for Moore's character is a grotesque and gory battle between the older and younger versions of herself. Demi Moore rose to fame in the '80s for her roles in movies like "St. Elmo's Fire." And throughout the '90s, she starred in a series of blockbuster hits, including "Ghost," "A Few Good Men," "Indecent Proposal," "Disclosure," "Striptease" and "G.I. Jane." During that period, Moore became one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. And Demi Moore joins us now. Welcome to FRESH AIR.

DEMI MOORE: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

MOSLEY: Demi, you are not this character, Elisabeth Sparkle, but I really can't imagine anyone else but you playing her because of your relationship with the Hollywood machine. I need to know, when you read this script, was it also clear to you that you were perfect for this role?

MOORE: I mean, I guess I don't think of myself from that objective point of view. I thought - I looked at this - I don't know if I was more perfect than someone else, but I definitely felt that I had a body of experience that really could be brought to it, and that I really - I felt like I related to and in that very human way. And so I felt like there was something that would be so deeply resonant for others.

MOSLEY: Right. There's the human element of it that I think every single woman who is fortunate enough to age understands and experiences. And then there's that other side of it of you being, as I mentioned, that Hollywood machine, where you're an actress, and so much of your worth in this business is on your youth and your beauty. This film, depending on where you are in life - it feels like a feminist work. It's a commentary on the drastic things that we are willing to do to ourselves when we can't accept who we are, that internalized self-hate that aging women grapple with.

But the other side of it, for me, also feels like it could veer into placing too much of the blame on us. You know, because we don't want to experience all the things that comes with aging. So it's our attempt to fight the inevitable. Was that a concern or something you thought about when you were considering this role, when you were reading this script?

MOORE: No because what really drew me to this was the exploration of not what the circumstances are, not what societal conditioning is, not what that collective consciousness of our agreement of -that women's value diminishes as they age that exists, that is changing, but does exist. But what fascinated me is what we do to ourselves. And that, again, for me, was not even specific to women, but for the sake of exploring this, it has heightened intensity by it being set in the world of entertainment, in - where the stakes and the pressures are greater. But just that idea of that violence in the way in which we can compare and despair, and you know. And this idea of it being body horror which essentially is - in the film is taking that which is a very internal experience, the way in which we can talk to ourselves...

MOSLEY: The horror internally. Yes.

MOORE: Yes, And that it creates a physical manifestation that does become distorted as my character devolves and degrades in that pursuit of perfection. And also just in that idea of where we place our value, you know? Elisabeth Sparkle has clearly, when - you know, from right from the get go, you see that her whole life has been really focused on career. We don't see family. We don't see really social life, everything in her life.

MOSLEY: I have to say, this is one of the most graphic body horror films that I've ever seen. And when I saw it in the theater, it was with a bunch of reporters. There was just a lot of gasping and oohing and awing and also laughing.

MOORE: Yes. Thank goodness (laughter).

MOSLEY: Yes. We see you and your co-star, Margaret Qualley, who plays the younger version of you, fully nude. Nudity is nothing new to you. There are close-ups of you and Margaret. Were there intimacy coordinators on set to help you guys navigate? Or how were you able to embody those characters? There are moments when you and Margaret are actually on top of each other. Like on the floor. I mean, like, yeah, we can get pretty graphic.

MOORE: We didn't have anything like that. And, you know, we spent some time really spelling it out before we started shooting. And then we kind of worked something in that kind of came for me in another film which was indecent proposal where I had worked it out in my deal so that I could be more free on the day. To not be like, well, you have this much nipple showing, you have this much - to me, I find that so much more - that puts you so much more in your head.

And so my, you know, encouragement and suggestion is to be able to have an agreement where we know what the director is wanting, what they're looking to get. But that once it's edited together, that there is an opportunity to have a say in how if there's anything that's too much. So by being given some participation and collaboration and allowed for a sense of protection and safety. And so in the end, neither of us asked for anything to be changed.

MOSLEY: Yeah. That's great.

MOORE: But in truth, I'm so grateful to Margaret because, you know, we really looked out for each other.

MOSLEY: I heard you guys had, like, kind of a laughing attack or just laughed at a moment...

MOORE: We did.

MOSLEY: ...When you guys were both on the floor together naked (laughter).

MOORE: I mean, you know, as she was, like, having to, like, drop unconsciously on top of me with her full weight. And, you know, and we're like, on a cold hard tile floor for hours and hours. And Margaret at one point, said, thank God we like each other because otherwise, this could be really awkward. And it did. I mean, like, really, like, I adore her. I think her performance is amazing, and throughout all of it, like, we've enjoyed doing press, which isn't always the easiest part, but having each other, even for that has been so wonderful.

MOSLEY: There's a lot of nudity. I couldn't help but think about your relationship with your body because you've said for years that even at the height of your career in the '90s when you were seen as a sex symbol, you never really loved your body. So what kind of conversations did you and the director have about how far you'd go in this film and why it was actually needed to tell the story?

MOORE: Well, I think, one, the nudity in this is not sexualized. It's really about introspection. And I think it, again, was a way of illustrating a depth of vulnerability because it's the emotional vulnerability that, in many respects, was much harder.

MOSLEY: Say more about that because a lot of this acting - I mean, there's not a lot of dialogue.

MOORE: Exactly.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

MOORE: And if you really think about it, most of the film, I'm alone. And I think a lot of the nudity was really also about those moments that we have alone and, you know, the bareness of it as opposed to it really being about being nude.

MOSLEY: Yeah, there's this scene where you're standing in the mirror, and you're naked, and you're staring at yourself, and you're like, just letting your gaze kind of look over at yourself. And I think about how that's such a common experience in the morning for all of us when we wake up and start the day.

You mentioned how you had done so much of the prep work to emotionally prepare. I read that you and the director, Coralie - you all met, and you gave her your memoir when you all were talking about you taking on this role. Why did you think it was important for her as she was considering you to also know your story?

MOORE: Well, Coralie, you know, obviously had been living with this. This is a very personal story for her. She had - you know, she had been working and living with this for far longer than the point that it was being brought to me for consideration. And I think there was a very protective part of her of really wanting to make sure not only that the two actresses that she was bringing in were right together but that, I think, really could hold this for her. And I think that she had her own levels of uncertainty and vulnerability about kind of handing it over. And I just felt like there was, in my own story - that there was perhaps something that she could take away to really know that this wasn't just something of an intellectual understanding but that I had really walked through it on a very personal level from a much earlier time in my life.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is award-winning actor Demi Moore. She stars in the new film "The Substance." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF PYRIT SONG, "FADE AWAY")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR, and I'm talking to Demi Moore today about her new role in the horror film "The Substance," directed by Coralie Fargeat. In it, Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging actress who loses her job hosting a workout show because her boss thinks she's too old and not hot enough. She discovers a way to get her job back by taking a mysterious substance called the substance, which creates a younger version of herself named Sue, played by Margaret Qualley.

I want to play a scene from the movie. In this scene, Sue, who is played by Margaret Qualley - she's misusing the substance. And Elisabeth Sparkle, your character, notices that one of her fingers has suddenly aged to an old finger, and she is desperate for help. And in setting this up, I just want to say, as part of taking the substance, you are making this agreement that every seven days, you're going to move back and forth from your older self to your younger self. But something happens, and you're desperate for help 'cause she got this old finger. And so you call the number of the company who provided the substance. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SUBSTANCE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yes.

MOORE: (As Elisabeth Sparkle) Yes. Hi. This is Elisabeth Sparkle. I'm 503.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yes.

MOORE: (As Elisabeth) Yes. Hi. There's been a slight misuse of the substance. A few extra hours were accidentally used, causing an alteration. So I'm just looking for the procedure to reverse it.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) What has been used on one side is lost on the other side. There's no going back.

MOORE: (As Elisabeth) No. I don't know what she was thinking. And obviously, she was drunk.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Remember; there is no she and you. You are one. Respect the balance, and you won't have any more inconveniences.

MOSLEY: Oh, that was a scene from the new movie "The Substance" starring my guest today, Demi Moore. Oh, Demi, what is so interesting to me is that your character gets this second chance, this second opportunity to be young again. And instead of using it to make other choices in her life, she actually regresses. She repeats this pattern, which includes seeking approval from her boss, this man who has fired her. Under all of the guts and gore of this movie, it's a really subtle but profound insight, and it's a very midlife struggle for many women, myself included, because all of the sudden - all of a sudden, there's this pressure to go back, to look younger, to turn back time. And you look amazing. It's also part of your reputation. And of course, the Hollywood machine rewards youth. But what internal pressures have you felt over time to look and stay youthful? Was there a time period where that felt more intense for you?

MOORE: I don't know if I could say there's one time that's more intense than another. But I think, again, it's - where are you placing your value? It really comes down to, is my value entirely placed on my external self, or am I finding the appropriate balance with - you know, of course, we all want to look our best.

MOSLEY: Yep.

MOORE: We all want to - and - but I really think - look, I titled my memoir "Inside Out" because I really feel that is the pathway to the greatest joy, happiness and well-being. It's not something that will ever come from the outside in.

MOSLEY: I think everyone was just so surprised when you wrote "Inside Out" and you talked about how much you hated your body in your 20s. And you were the person that we all looked at as the person having a perfect body. But you were experiencing, at every stage of your life, this issue where the external - where you have to sit with yourself and contend with yourself keeps coming back up. There's nothing in particular about mid-life or older life. It's just a continuation. Is that what I'm hearing from you?

MOORE: Exactly. Yes, definitely. And I can look back at all of those times when - moments of being told to lose weight for a film or, you know, being spoken about, you know, in judgmental ways. And in the end, it's what I chose to do with it. And I think if I look at it now, while I became quite obsessive-compulsive and I was over exercising and controlling my food and doing all of these things, it's what I was doing to myself. I could have easily looked at what was being said and say, so what?

And that's what's so interesting to me in the film, is that in this whole thing, as you were just saying, I get this second opportunity. And I want to clarify for your audience that part of the younger me is that it's shared consciousness, so I can share consciousness between the two bodies. Though when I get this second opportunity, I do seek the same validation, I do seek - as opposed to stopping. And, you know, Sue could've said, I'm going to have my own show.

MOSLEY: Right. So this character, Elisabeth, is 50. And the boss is Dennis Quad, is basically saying it's over at 50. He's overly grotesque as a studio executive. So he's over the top, but did you ever experience a shunning in Hollywood similar to this or where someone actually said to you directly, you're too old?

MOORE: No, I haven't. Obviously, the film has a satirical aspect to it. And it's quite exaggerated to kind of make these points. I think aspects of that certainly exist and more so in the past. But it was just - it was not as overt.

MOSLEY: You tell this story about...

MOORE: Aaron Sorkin.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

MOORE: Yeah.

MOSLEY: And how he stood up to studio executives. He said what?

MOORE: Which I didn't know until I was working on the book, which was - and I found this interview that he did - that the studio executive at that time during shooting "A Few Good Men" was really pushing for there to be a love scene between Tom Cruz's character and mine, which Rob Reiner and Aaron Sorkin didn't feel was appropriate for the story. It was unnecessary. And the studio executive response was, well, then what do we have Demi Moore for, which I thought was very indicative also of the time. But, again, that was never done to my face directly.

MOSLEY: There's a scene, one of the most powerful scenes in the film, that conveys, like, that loneliness we were talking about of self-hate. Your character has no friends and no family and bumps into an old high school classmate, who then wants to take her out to dinner. And she ultimately just is so - like, she keeps looking at herself in the mirror and changing over and over, her outfit, and finally just decides, I'm not going.

MOORE: For me, it's one of the most heartbreaking moments and most relatable moments in the whole film. You know, I think we've all been there in some degree, where you go and you look in the mirror and you're trying to make something better, only to make it worse. And where...

MOSLEY: A million outfits you've thrown on the bed and the floor.

MOORE: And the self-doubt, like, comes up and the questioning and, you know, the hyper-focusing. And in this case, it's like she's so close to stepping out of this, you know, that she's created, and she just can't do it. As I mentioned earlier, that compare and despair that really devolves into just absolute self-hate.

MOSLEY: Our guest today is actor Demi Moore. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF PYRIT SONG, "FADE AWAY")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley, and my guest is Demi Moore. She stars in the new body horror film "The Substance," directed by Coralie Fargeat. In it, Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging actress who loses her job hosting a workout show because her boss thinks she's too old and not hot enough. She discovers a way to get her job back by taking a mysterious substance called the substance, which creates a younger version of herself named Sue, played by Margaret Qualley.

I want to talk a little bit about your career. When did it become clear to you that you wanted to act?

MOORE: I think I made a real conscious decision after spending time with the young actress Natassja Kinski, where we were, you know, two teenagers living in an apartment building, both with our single mothers. And I was so taken not just with her external beauty, but she had this embodied, comfortable way - I didn't know what it was. You know, I'm 15 years old. Whatever it was she had, I just wanted it. And so she was pursuing being an actor. And because she's German - and she spoke English quite beautifully, but she didn't feel confident in reading it, so she asked me to sit and read scripts aloud to her.

MOSLEY: Wow.

MOORE: And so as we did that, combined with this feeling of, how do I get what she had? - what this thing was within her that exuded. And she then left to go back to Europe to make the film "Tess" with Roman Polanski. And I just made a decision. Like, I had no idea, like, how it worked, what to do. Could I even do it? I had never acted. It's not like I acted in school. And so I just set out to figure it out.

MOSLEY: You played around with music for a little bit, also modeling.

MOORE: I mean, modeling definitely 'cause I figured out very early on that I was starting my - you know, to pursue acting. But I wasn't 18, but I wasn't a child actor. And so I figured out, oh, well, they would rather hire somebody who is of legal age to play 14, 13. And so because I moved out on my own at 16, I just quickly assessed that I could possibly make a living modeling, but I lied about my age. So there was no conflict.

MOSLEY: You lied to be older.

MOORE: Yes, just so that there would be no question about whether I was legal to work.

MOSLEY: Right. Well, it worked out for you, right? Yeah. But, wow, what fortitude you had at a young age to make those decisions.

MOORE: Which - I can say, I can look at today and look at certain things that happened earlier in my life and see how all of those things - and not all the things that were of nurturing or guidance and encouragement - but the things that were my challenges, the things that were painful that were happening for me that allowed me to have the determination, the fortitude, the courage, to take the kind of risk that it took to step into a world I had not a clue of. And while I may have attended the school, fake it till you make it, the university of - I don't think I could have even done any of that without the challenges that I had as a kid.

MOSLEY: Well, one of the big challenges was the relationship with your mother. And you write about this in the book, but something pretty terrible happened to you that shaped you significantly when you were 15. Are you OK with talking about?

MOORE: Sure.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

MOORE: It was an encounter with a man - I was 15 - that was in his 50s that, for the majority of my adult life - I would say, you know, up until 15, maybe a little bit more, years ago - I always blamed myself for, that I had put myself in that position. And this man trapped me and essentially raped me and left me with this horrific question when I started to resist even being around him because he had befriended my mother. And that essential question when he was being even more hateful was, how does it feel to be whored by your mother for 500 bucks?

MOSLEY: Because he felt like your mom knew what his intentions were and essentially sold you to him.

MOORE: I think that it was a question that I couldn't even explore. It was almost as if - I, today, don't believe that there was an actual transaction that occurred, meaning it was not transparent. I think that my mother had asked to borrow money. And in doing so, he positioned himself to be in this apartment when I came home from school by myself.

But being left with that question was one that I just compartmentalized. I blamed myself. I shut the door and, two days after my 16th birthday, moved out. And I think there was a part of me that just started running 'cause I think in my teenage mind, I think I couldn't wrap myself around that being the truth. Or, if that was the truth, the level of shame around that would mean that everything would be over. Like, what life would I have? So I don't even think I could entertain the idea.

MOSLEY: You couldn't even really look at it or face it.

MOORE: Nope, not at all.

MOSLEY: Fifteen years ago, you said, is when you started to really look at it.

MOORE: Yeah, I mean, I - maybe - you know, maybe a little earlier, but not - I mean, I - but around there. I think I'd never really - I think because I've always been extremely responsible - I've been on my own for so long. There's no other way. And it's - what's really given me a - in some ways, a lot of freedom to move forward in life is that I took the blame and responsibility for everything. In a way, you know, that didn't allow me to entertain the idea that his actions, in fact, were that of rape.

MOSLEY: Was your mother still alive when you came to this realization of what had happened to you?

MOORE: She wasn't.

MOSLEY: How would you describe your relationship with your mother after you ran? For those years - for many years, you were estranged.

MOORE: I think, you know, it was - I think what's interesting, you know, is even after that, you know, I've - I - even as a very young girl, I felt more like I was the mother to the mother. And there was a certain fragility that my mother had, and only much later in her life was she diagnosed with - as being bipolar. It wasn't really as known. And so I think a lot of her life, you know, she was trying to manage aspects of mental illness that also, I think, grew within her because of undealt-with trauma that she had, I think, at her core, never having really felt loved. And so my relationship with her - it was estranged for a certain last part, but I never gave up 'cause I don't think you do. Even children who are abused, I think you still hold out the hope, and there was a part of me that felt very responsible for her.

MOSLEY: How did you come to that awareness? - because I think you actually say in the book, there is this time when you become a mother where you can sometimes see your mother in a new light.

MOORE: I think, you know, I also went and took care of my mother the last three and a half months of her life. And that was after being quite estranged for many years. And I went not with having any expectations or anger or any - I really did have a lot of acceptance of her for who she was. I didn't expect her to be any different. I didn't really expect her to be mothering to me in the classic traditional sense of it.

MOSLEY: How did you get there?

MOORE: I don't know. I think that there was a part of me that always really saw her as not being as strong as I was, that allowed me to have a certain level of understanding that, you know, has, again, like many things in life, has only kind of expanded. And then I feel like when I was working on the book, it really you know, moved kind of the needle of my depth of my understanding, obviously, as a mother, that if I couldn't find compassion for my mother, how could I expect my children to find compassion for me? Because isn't that how we break the chain of the transgenerational traumas?

Like, if I hold on to resentment, if I hold on, if I don't see her, in which part of it, it was really starting to think of my mother - I have this beautiful picture of her as a baby. And in looking at that, I realized that she came into this world as an innocent soul, an innocent being, just as we all do. And I don't think that in, you know, her intentions, she set out to be neglectful or to be less than nurturing or selfish or any of those things. And I really understood that she did the best that she could. And more importantly, it's when I shifted to really see life is happening for me, that all of those things that occurred are what made me who I am today. And so in that way, she actually was in service to me.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is award-winning actor Demi Moore. She stars in the new film "The Substance." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF AMY WINEHOUSE SONG, "YOU KNOW I'M NO GOOD")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR, and I'm talking to Demi Moore today about her new role in the horror film, "The Substance," directed by Coralie Fargeat, which uses the trappings of the horror genre to critique Hollywood and the industries cashing in on people's search for the fountain of youth.

Demi Moore rose to fame in the '80s for her roles in movies like "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Ghost." Throughout the '90s, she starred in a series of blockbuster hits, including "A Few Good Men," "Indecent Proposal," "Disclosure," "Striptease" and "G.I. Jane." During that period, Moore was one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, which opened the door for other actresses to be paid more.

In the '90s, Demi, you commanded more than $12 million for your role in "Striptease," where you played an exotic dancer who was fighting for custody of her child. And your ability to garner that high paycheck did a lot to advance pay parity for women in Hollywood. One of the things I never can find, I never read about is exactly how you did that.

MOORE: I don't know. I think it just - in the straight-up negotiation. It wasn't even, like, a huge - like, I wasn't making any big demand. It was just put on the table. I wish I could say it was like a big struggle. No, it wasn't. It was actually met with a sense of that it was right and fair. Like, to me, it was, like, laid out on the table that this was, you know, a fair request.

MOSLEY: It was right and fair. Many actresses credit you being able to get that number to helping them to raise their numbers. But the press painted you as this power-hungry, money-hungry actress. Before "Striptease" had even come out, you felt like they were almost trying to tear down your success before the public could even weigh in.

MOORE: And where they really came after me was with "G.I. Jane," because the two kind of were back to back, and I just - you know, it's just interesting. And I don't know if it was just because it was something more interesting to write about, because it was just being contrary. I think a lot of it was already trying to tear down that I was undeserving.

MOSLEY: This reputation, though, stuck with you for a long time. We know that iconic image of you on the cover of Vanity Fair. You're seven months pregnant. You're wearing nothing but your wedding ring. You actually say that article was one of the worst things that was ever written about you. We don't talk about the article often, but it had long-lasting impacts.

MOORE: It wasn't a very generous or balanced piece, but you're right. Most people just remember the photograph.

MOSLEY: Yeah. What did the article get wrong that kind of stuck with you at that point in your career?

MOORE: I mean, I think it was nasty tone that was portraying me as having an entourage of 20 people, which it just wasn't true. You know, like, it created a picture of me as being extremely demanding and super extra. Meanwhile, what she was referring to is a lot of what is standard on every movie, like hair, makeup, a set dresser. Like my own personal. All I had was I had a nanny because I had a baby and an assistant. That's all I personally had. But on every film, you have a hair-makeup team, you have wardrobe people, you have - like, but they aren't necessarily like your entourage. But the portrayal definitely led to, you know, like Rob Reiner had me come in to audition for "A Few Good Men."

MOSLEY: Because he wanted to make sure you weren't difficult.

MOORE: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Did it change your manner at all? Like...

MOORE: Nope.

MOSLEY: ...You still came in as yourself or...

MOORE: Of course.

MOSLEY: ...Did you feel - yeah. I mean, did you feel that pressure, though, to show, like, I'm actually not this person? You know how you kind of step in, like, subconsciously?

MOORE: I mean, I did - you do.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

MOORE: But at the same time, there is nothing to do except for how you be. Like, how you be, like, how am I showing up? Let people see that I'm professional, that the work is what's important to me, and, you know, it hurt, and it really kind of irked me. And at the same time, you have to step back and go, well, how is this in service to me? Because if this is somehow being perceived, and it's not how I feel I am, is there something I'm doing that is creating this?

MOSLEY: Last question. Many people are saying this is kind of the role of a lifetime for you. Like, you are fully formed. You are in your moment. This is a culmination of your work. Do you see it that way? What does this moment mean for you?

MOORE: I wouldn't want to see it in terms of it being the culmination, but perhaps the launching of a new next chapter. Like, that it's the beginning. It feels the beginning because I also feel that I am in - look, I've never been where I am exactly in this moment. This is all new too, and I'm also more autonomous. My children are grown. I have the most independence that I've ever had. And so it's just this wonderful new time of exploration and discovery. I have no expectations of where it should go. I just want to stay present to where I am and be open to the possibilities.

MOSLEY: Thank you for your wisdom, Demi. I wish you the best, and this was a pleasure.

MOORE: Thank you.

MOSLEY: Actor Demi Moore. She stars in the new movie "The Substance," opening in theaters nationwide on September 20, and available to stream on Mubi. That's M-U-B-I.com. Coming up, critic-at-large John Powers reviews the new documentary "Casa Bonita Mi Amor!" featuring the creators of "South Park." This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN ENO AND JOHN CALE SONG, "SPINNING AWAY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Tonya Mosley is the LA-based co-host of Here & Now, a midday radio show co-produced by NPR and WBUR. She's also the host of the podcast Truth Be Told.
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