From the outset of her career, Demi Moore’s body has been a constant source of speculation and fixation. Throughout The Substance’s press tour and Oscar campaign, she shared that the film’s script spoke to the way she viewed her own body as a young actress and chased thinness as an ideal, describing in a Guardian interview last year “how violent we can be to ourselves” when it comes to body image. And now, in a new interview with People, Moore recalled feeling “like my body was betraying me” during the early years of her career.
When asked about the “extreme lengths” she once felt were necessary to maintain her body, Moore acknowledged, “I did torture myself,” explaining that she did “crazy things like biking from Malibu all the way to Paramount, which is about 26 miles. All because I placed so much value on what my outsides looked like.”
She continued, “I was so harsh and had a much more antagonistic relationship with my body. And straight up I was really just punishing myself.” “When I was younger, I felt like my body was betraying me,” she added, “and so I just tried to control it.”
Now, Moore explained, she has a more “intuitive, relaxed relationship” with her body and no longer measures her worth based on her appearance. “It doesn’t mean that sometimes I look in the mirror and don’t go, ‘Oh God, I look old,’ or ‘Oh, my face is falling’ — I do,” she said. “But I can accept that that’s where I’m at today, and I know the difference today is that it doesn’t define my value or who I am.”
Most importantly, Moore recommends trying your very best to love yourself. And if that doesn’t work? “Go and find a little Pilaf … she is a pocketful of love every day.”
