Demi Moore says ‘popcorn actress’ label is ‘irrelevant’ after Oscar nomination

When her first Oscar nomination finally landed after a hard-fought four-decade career in Hollywood, The substance Star Demi Moore is no longer in labels showered on her by industry naysayers — instead, she’s fully into her “Yaya” era, thank you very much.

“Yes, yes, hey baby! I’ll be right back. I love you!” says the 62-year-old to someone other in the room with her, on a short break from her phone interview with Weekly entertainment on Oscar nominations in the morning. “The is my coffee, you are right! Yaya needs coffee early in the morning,” she continues, speaking clearly to granddaughter Louetta Isley Thomas Willis. When Moore returns to our chat, she emphasizes, “I’m moving where I can get better service, I don’t want to break up. ”

In other words, she wants what she says about her work in director Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror masterpiece to come across crystal clear, especially after she previously told EW (and said in her Golden Globes acceptance speech) that she once felt felt so ostracized by the industry (including an unnamed producer calling her a “popcorn actress”) that she considered leaving acting altogether.

“The most important part of it is that what that person said or didn’t say is irrelevant. How I held that was all,” Moore tells EW when asked if she’s since heard from the aforementioned producer amid her awards-season success. “That’s what I made it mean. It doesn’t matter if they actually meant it as I took it, but that’s what I made it mean about me, and that’s that I thought I was never one to believe or even consider that I could be recognized or honored for my work. I could do the work, but that couldn’t be something that was part of the equation. I guess I believed that.”

She admits that her role in The substance when Elisabeth Sparkle – an actress cast aside by her industry on her 50th birthday, who ends up taking a drug that from her spine births a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley) – was a “risky” move at this stage of her career after she felt that taking on projects that “had a provocative nature” earlier in her career “didn’t get any real consideration.” This, as she told the Globes, led to her being labeled a “popcorn actress,” thanks to her wild popularity as part of Brat Pack and in later box office hits such as Ghost, Stripteaseand Disclosure.

“It started to feel like things were eroding,” says Moore, looking back on darker times. “If it wasn’t part of what was out there for me, maybe the universe said I was done.”

That is until the “divine timing” of The substance brought her to this moment — and back on track, reframing a brief period of doubt when she considered leaving acting for good. She says her nomination for the film is a motivator to keep “driving to do meaningful and memorable work that makes a difference both in entertainment and in cultural shifts” as the film has resonated with audiences worldwide for his commentary on resilience and resistance amidst ageism and sexism.

While she’s past the “popcorn actor” era, Moore’s more commercial work still has her loyal fans—such as the cult audience that clings to 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttlethe blockbuster sequel, in which she played the villainous Madison Lee opposite Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.

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The film was a critical disappointment, but its camp nature has cemented it as a genuine treat for millennial audiences. When asked if anyone along the way has brought up a possible revival of her character in another Angels movie (Spoiler alert: Yes, we know Madison technically speaking died in the movie), laughs Moore.

“Um, no. Nobody brought it up,” she says. “In our present age, anything is possible.”

Still, if her success for The substance is any indication, there’s always room to keep growing: “(The film is) the marker of the universe that says — as I said in my (Golden Globes) speech: ‘You’re not done. You’re not done yet.'”

The 2025 Oscars will be shown on Sunday, March 2 on ABC at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with the official red carpet presentation beginning at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT, with Conan O’Brien set to make his Academy Awards hosting debut.