In 1996, Demi Moore became the world’s highest-paid actress, but despite her impressive title, she has now revealed there was an overwhelming sense of shame that came along with it.
Demi, 61, who was married to Bruce Willis at the time, was everywhere in the late 90s. From her role as the determined Erin Grant in Striptease to Lieutenant Jordan O’Neill in G.I. Jane, she dominated the box office.
Earning an impressive $12.5million (£9.44m) for her roles in successful films, she became Hollywood’s highest-paid actress that year, rivalling male actors in the industry, including Bruce.
But while it’s an achievement many can only dream of, Demi has now shared there was an unexpected dark side that came alongside it.
Speaking about her role in Striptease, which saw her play a woman whose child was taken away from her in a custody battle resulting in her turning to stripping in order to earn enough money to get her back, Demi said it was ‘as if I had betrayed women’.
While in G.I Jane, where she played Jordan, a woman trying to prove her worth in the male-dominated Navy Special Warfare Group, was ‘as if I had betrayed men’.
‘I think the interesting piece is that when I became the highest-paid actress — why is it that, at that moment, the choice was to bring me down?’ she told The New York Times’ The Interview podcast.
‘I don’t take this personally. I think anyone who had been in the position that was the first to get that kind of equality of pay would probably have taken a hit. But because I did a film that was dealing with the world of stripping and the body, I was extremely shamed.’
Demi continued to say she never compared her salary to that of her then-husband Bruce, but was aware of how much he was making on his own movies at the time, which included Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Last Man Standing, admitting she thought it was fair what she earned for her own roles.
‘It wasn’t about comparing myself to him. Yes, I saw what he got paid,’ she said. ‘It was really more about: “Why shouldn’t I? If I’m doing the same amount of work, why shouldn’t I?”‘
Female actresses have been fighting for equal pay in the industry for many years now, despite their best efforts, Forbes recently revealed its annual highest-earning actors list with Margot Robbie and Jennifer Aniston being the only women in the top 10.
New research has also revealed that last year, only 30 of 100 films had females in lead roles, down 44 from 2022.
Elsewhere in the interview, the Golden Globe nominee spoke about her controversial 1991 Vanity Fair cover and the backlash it received.
Posing for the popular fashion magazine fully nude and seven months pregnant, the cover upset many people and resulted in multiple grocery store chains across America refusing to carry the issue.
‘I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, why women when they were pregnant needed to be hidden?’ she said on the podcast. ‘Why is it that we have to deny that we had sex? That’s the fear, right, that if you show your belly, that means, oh, my gosh, you’ve had sex.’
The comments come amid the launch of Demi’s spooky new film, The Substance, a movie which she revealed resulted in her losing a significant amount of weight.
Speaking to the LA Times ahead of the film’s launch on September 20, Demi said during one of the week’s filming where she wasn’t required on set, she got the shingles and was so sick she lost 20lbs.
Demi plays ageing actress Elisabeth Sparkle in the movie, who is axed from her exercise segment on a morning show on her 50th birthday, leading her to take an experimental substance that ‘generates a new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you’.
The Substance is out in cinemas on September 18 in the US, and September 20 in the UK.
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