Demi Moore
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Demi MooreMichael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images.

Demi Moore is enjoying the celebration of her work in the upcoming body horror movie, The Substance.The film brings up lots of themes regarding age, youth, beauty, and yes, sexism. The hot topics have also raised conversations about the 61-year-old actress’ body of work and the unpleasant moment she encountered while on the set of A Few Good Men in 1992.

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In the Aaron Sorkin-written movie, Moore played lawyer Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway who worked with fellow military attorney, Lt. Daniel Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise. Together, they subpoena a commanding officer in the Marines (Jack Nicholson) who might have ordered his subordinates to kill one of their peers at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. That sounds like a cut-and-dry legal drama, but it wasn’t enough for one studio executive — he wanted Moore’s character to sleep with Cruise’s legal eagle.

A FEW GOOD MEN, Kevin Pollak, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, 1992, (c) Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection

A FEW GOOD MEN, Kevin Pollak, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, 1992.©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection.

If it wasn’t for Sorkin, the story might have taken an unexpected turn — these Marines were supposed to be respected co-workers, not lovers falling into bed after the courtroom scenes were over. Moore told the Los Angeles Times that the studio exec didn’t love being told no and he reportedly said, “Well, then why did we hire Demi Moore?” Moore had an interesting response to the on-set sexism because she doesn’t necessarily blame the unnamed man’s opinion, she blames it on society. “I think that it’s how they were conditioned,” she shared. “It was a part of the accepted conditioning — that of course that’s why they would have someone like me there.”

Moore admitted in an August profile in Interview Magazine how she struggled with her sex symbol image after doing Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle in 2003. “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,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I didn’t belong, Moore continued. “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.”

That confusing time seemed to lead her to the material of The Substance which magnifies the often damaging beliefs tied to the male gaze. Moore is hopefully that the film will stir up meaningful discussions with men and women in Hollywood and beyond. “We’ve actually come an enormous distance,” she summed up to the LA Times. “It doesn’t make it OK, but we can’t hit a hammer over it. We have to move [forward]. It really starts with us.”