Inside Demi Moore's Sensational Comeback from 'Popcorn' Actress Whose Career Tanked in '90s to Serious Awards Contender
Demi Moore took home her first major acting award at the 2024 Golden Globes.
Jan. 6 2025, Published 4:15 p.m. ET
Demi Moore has made a serious career comeback.
RadarOnline.com can reveal how the Striptease star went from being branded a "popcorn" actress to clinching her first-ever Golden Globe award.
Moore, 62, came out victorious at Sunday night's award show for her performance in The Substance.
Moore has been nominated several times over her career but never won an award until Sunday night's Golden Globes.
The 62-year-old was a leading lady in the 90s – starring in hit films including A Few Good Men, Ghost, Indecent Proposal and G.I. Jane – but her career hit a lull, and she seemingly stepped out of the spotlight.
Despite her impressive resume – which included four Golden Globe nominations, as well as an Emmy and SAG award nods – Moore's earlier work never won her a major acting award.
That all changed when she signed up to star in the 2024 thriller about a 50-year-old aerobics performer who's offered a substance promising to transform her into an enhanced version of herself.
Moore won the award for her performance in 'The Substance.'
Moore delivered a critically acclaimed performance of Elisabeth Sparkle in the film, which sparked discourse over Hollywood and society's beauty standards and objectification of women.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Moore took the stage to accept her first major award – and noted in her speech how she was once dubbed a "popcorn" actress.
Amid thundering applause from the crowd, Moore began: "Wow, I really wasn't expecting that.
"I'm just in shock right now. I've been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first time I've ever won anything as an actor. I'm just so humbled and so grateful."
During her acceptance speech, Moore said she was 'so humbled and grateful' for the recognition.
She then recalled: "30 years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress.
"At that time I made that mean that this wasn't something that I was allowed to have, that I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn't be acknowledged.
"I bought in, and I believed that, and that corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it – maybe I was complete, maybe I've done what I was supposed to do."
Moore said in her tearjerking speech the award represented her 'wholeness' and 'reminded' her she 'belongs.'
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Moore reflected on being at a particularly "low point" in life when she read the script for The Substance, which she called "magical, bold, courageous, out of the box (and) absolutely bonkers."
On being tapped for the role, she added: "The universe told me that you're not done."
She finished her speech on an inspiring note, telling the audience: "I'll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting in those moments, when we don't think we're smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough or basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me, 'Just know, you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.'
"And so today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness, and of the love that is driving me, and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded I do belong. Thank you."
