Demi Moore has revealed her shock full frontal nudity scenes in acclaimed new film The Substance were easier to perform with co-star Margaret Qualley by her side.

Moore, 61, whose film has been met by rave reviews and received a 13-minute standing ovation at Cannes, told Variety Qualley, 29 made her feel 'very safe' while they filmed the scenes for the body horror film.

In The Substance, Moore stars as Elisabeth, an ageing TV fitness instructor who signs up for a mysterious medical regime called The Substance that promises to create the perfect, younger and better version of herself - played by Qualley.

The role required Moore to be completely naked in a scene where Qualley's character is 'birthed' - which shows Moore examining her own nude body before Qualley emerges and looks at her own skin in a full-frontal scene.

Moore said: I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with. We obviously were quite close — naked — and we also got a lot of levity in those moments at how absurd those certain situations were. But ultimately. it’s just about really directing your communication and mutual trust.

Demi Moore has revealed her shock full frontal nudity scenes in acclaimed new film The Substance were easier to perform with co-star Margaret Qualley by her side

Demi stars as Elisabeth, an ageing TV fitness instructor a la Jane Fonda, who signs up for a mysterious medical regime called The Substance - with both lead stars going fully nude

Moore also transforms into a deteriorating old woman through prosthetics and said: 'It was very strange. One thing that helped was my dog still recognized me. It was my touchstone of reality.'

After the film premiered on Sunday night it reportedly received a 13-minute standing ovation and Demi's own performance has been branded 'fearless'.

Demi's co-star Dennis Quaid referred to her Cannes comeback as a 'incredible third act' during a press conference after the film screened during the festival.

After branding her 'inspirational', Demi spoke about her own experience with making the film, which she claimed 'pushed her out of her comfort zone'.

She said: 'I look for things that push me out of my comfort zone; the opportunity to make a better person and actor. 

'This touched on so many themes that we all face, we seek validation and belonging. By doing [the movie] it takes us to extremes and allows us to step into it in a unique way.

'Through the process of the film, I think I came out with greater acceptance of myself.'

The 13-minute standing ovation after the film was the longest the 77th annual festival has seen so far, as a rapturous applause filled the theatre.

The risky experiment promises to create the perfect version of herself - played by Margaret Qualley (pictured)

The role required Moore to be completely naked in a scene where Qualley's character is 'birthed' - which shows Moore examining her own nude body before Qualley emerges and looks at her own skin in a full-frontal scene

Demi said the vulnerability required for her role in the body horror film was both demanding and exciting.

Demi stars as Elisabeth, an ageing TV fitness instructor a la Jane Fonda who signs up for a mysterious medical regime called The Substance that promises to create the perfect version of herself - played by Margaret Qualley.

The role required Demi to be completely naked as well as transform into a deteriorating old woman through prosthetics.

'All of it at different times had moments that were challenging. The level of vulnerability that this role called for on all the different levels - emotionally, physically - were as demanding as it was exciting because it was really pushing me to step out of my comfort zone.'

Critics were positive on her performance, with Variety calling it 'nothing short of fearless' and The Hollywood Reporter praising how she 'imbues her character with a visceral desperation.'

This year's festival marks the first time in more than a quarter-century that Demi, who became a sex symbol through films like Striptease in the 1990s, was at the festival.

Meanwhile, Margaret said having to portray the so-called perfect version of a woman's body was a weird experience.

She said: 'She is meant to be perfect, but she's probably like the least beautiful character I've ever played because she's heartless'.

French director and writer Coralie Fargeat said that her goal was to explore women's toxic relationships with their bodies and how they are taught that their worth is tied to their appearance.

She said: 'The way I wrote the movie really sticks to what we experience as women with our bodies. So, it's the way our body is seen, but also the way we see our own body.'

REVIEWS: THE SUBSTANCE 

The Guardian

Rating:

Well, the movie is ridiculous and a bit redundant towards the drawn-out end, but Moore savours the postmodern horror of her situation. 

In its trashiness – and, yes, its refusal of serious substance – The Substance should really be put out on VHS cassettes and watched at home in homage to the great era of home entertainment pulp and video-store masterpieces of weirdness and crassness. 

It reminded me of Michael Crichton's neglected 80s pulp chiller Looker with Albert Finney as a sinister plastic surgeon. Fargeat delivers some shocks.

The Telegraph

Rating:

If that science-fictional premise sounds wild, you haven't heard the half of it. The Substance is a humdinger of a satirical horror-thriller, by turns hilarious, affecting and jaw-droppingly grotesque. 

It's exactly the jolt of extravagantly stylised genre energy the Cannes Film Festival needed at this midway point, and Moore, making a mighty comeback, seizes the role as if her life depended on it.

BBC Culture 

Rating:

Fargeat's twisted tale is good fun, especially if you like to hear squelching, cracking and crunching noises as gruesome things are done to human flesh. (Anyone with a fear of needles should avoid The Substance at all costs.) 

The film also offers attention-grabbing roles for all three of its stars. Ripping into her best big-screen role in decades, Moore is fearless in parodying her public image, Qualley showcases a wicked sense of humour as Barbie's evil twin, and Quaid hams it up joyously as an obnoxious, flashy-suited impresario. 

Hollywood Reporter

A gory fantasia that is a twisted cross between the classic films Sunset Blvd. and Freaks, it is one of the most out-there Cannes competition films since Titane — and, with the right mix of jurors, could follow that film to a major festival award, if not for the film then perhaps for Moore. 

Indie Wire

The Substance is a non-stop, go-until-you-gag epic that builds and builds and builds until it scars everyone in the audience with a deep-seated physiological aversion to the idea that we can ever hope to escape from ourselves. 

Fargaet's movie escalates with the kind of ultra-confident audacity that leaves you laughing out loud at sights that would otherwise make you shriek instead, and it simply refuses to end until even Harvey himself is sickened by how society pressures women into shaping their bodies. 

And so, like any fairy tale worth its unforgettably frightening special effects, 'The Substance' concludes with a clear moral that it makes you want to believe in: There's more beauty in freedom than there is freedom in beauty. And it's absolutely gorgeous to watch Elisabeth Sparkle and Demi Moore help each other escape into the light of that truth.

Variety 

Demi Moore's performance is nothing short of fearless. She's playing, in some very abstract way, a version of herself (once a star at the centre of the universe, now old enough to be seen by sexist Hollywood as past it), and her acting is rippled with anger, terror, despair, and vengeance. 

There's a lot of full-on nudity in 'The Substance,' to the point that the film flirts with building a male gaze into the foundation of its aesthetic. Yet it does so only to pull the rug of voyeurism out from under us. Margaret Qualley makes Sue crisply magnetic in her confidence, and the fact that Sue knows how to package herself as an 'object' is part of the film's satirical design. She's following the rules, 'giving the people what they want.' 

It's clear, I think, that Qualley is going to be a major star, and you see why here. She takes this stylized role and imbues it with a hint of mystery. For 'The Substance' is finally a story of dueling egos, with Elisabeth's real self and her enhanced self going at each other in a war for dominance.