We’ve been intrigued about the new body horror film The Substance ever since it shocked viewers at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
The grisly film centres around a fading TV star, who takes a mysterious drug that causes her to create a younger version of herself, with Margaret Qualley portraying Demi Moore’s duplicate.
In the lead-up to its release on Friday, both Demi and Margaret opened up about some of the shoot’s more “brutal” moments.
Asked by Entertainment Weekly about moments that “pushed her to the brink”, Margaret said simply: “All of it. Every goddamned day.”
“Even the dancing [in the workout video portions] was brutal.”
“We’d hit the weekends and, both of us, did we go out anywhere? We didn’t do anything,” Demi agreed.
“On rest time, we’d text, I’d go to her apartment. It was two floors down, and we’d be like, ‘I can’t fucking move’. It was difficult.”
Demi previously admitted that the shoot was so stressful that it caused her to lose a significant amount of weight and contract shingles.
Margaret, meanwhile, developed “crazy acne for a full, long-ass time” when filming was over.
After The Substance premiered at Cannes, much was made in the press about the film’s graphic violence and nudity.
Back in May, the Ghost star spoke about how shooting these challenging scenes was a “vulnerable” experience that required “sensitivity” and “a lot of conversation”.
“I think finding that common ground of mutual trust [helps],” she said. “I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with. We obviously were quite close in certain moments, naked, and it allowed us also a lot of levity … at how absurd those certain situations were, with us lying on the tile floor.”
The Substance hits cinemas on Friday 20 September. Watch the trailer for yourself below: