I Genuinely Cannot Watch "The Substance" The Same Way After Learning These 17 Fascinating Facts
by Lauren Garafano · BuzzFeed🚨Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead!🚨
1. French director and screenwriter Coralie Fargeat was inspired by her own life experiences when creating The Substance. "Since [I was] a kid, I think about how I have to live with my own image and how I learned to be super violent about it. It made me feel that I was never good enough. At each age, you can find something that is not enough. I questioned myself about the violence of it," she told Collider.
"When I was past my 40s and aiming to my 50s, it became even more violent that [it felt like] now this is it, I'm going to be erased. It's the end of it. I felt that it was so absurd, but at the same time so real," she added.
2. In the film, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a famous aerobics instructor who has just turned 50 years old. Amid being fired, she learns of a substance that can transform her into a better version of herself. Margaret Qualley plays Sue, the younger, "more enhanced" version of Elisabeth. And while they play two sides of the same person, they'd actually never met before this movie.
Demi said that she'd actually filmed one of her first films, St. Elmo's Fire, alongside Margaret's mom, Andie MacDowell. And Margaret shared that G.I. Jane was one of her favorite movies.
3. Coralie was shocked Demi said yes to starring in the movie. She told People, "To be honest, when her name came up, you know, when we were thinking about actresses, I said, 'Oh, forget it. She will never want to do something like that. Let's not lose time, you know." But she figured she had nothing to lose, so she sent Demi the script.
"And when I heard that she responded in a positive way, it was something very strong that I felt that it could be such a great match for the role," Coralie added.
4. Coralie loves using symbolism in her movies, so the last name Sparkle symbolizes the idea of shining, "of being under the light, and to have this moment that means happiness." As for the name Elisabeth, Coralie felt the name had a "big resonance" with big movie stars from years past.
She told Collider, "I remember at some point somebody tried to make me — in production — maybe change the name because we didn't want to have, like, legal issues. ... I said 'No. No way.'"
5. Coralie said that the name Sue had a sexy connotation to her. "Like, Lolita, babydoll. It represents this to me," she told Collider.
Margaret added that she always assumed the character was named Sue because of the way a person's lips pucker when they say the name.
6. While the movie takes place in Hollywood, it was entirely filmed in France. Coralie wanted to create an "enhanced vision of Hollywood that fit the story." Then, the scenes inside Elisabeth's apartment were all filmed on a soundstage.
“We shot 100 percent of the movie in France. Cinema, to me, is the art of illusion, and that’s what I really enjoy when I make my films, to be able to cheat stuff," Coralie told Rue Morgue.
7. Ray Liotta was originally cast to play Harvey, but after his sudden death in 2022, he was replaced by Dennis Quaid.
8. Dennis was "so committed" to Harvey's shrimp-eating scene and making it as gross as possible. Coralie said, "I think he ate two kilos, for real," which would convert to about 4.4 pounds.
Demi said it was "by far the most violent scene in the movie."
9. A ton of prosthetics were used for the movie, including Margaret's boobs. She explained the prosthetics team endowed her "with the rack of a lifetime."
10. Margaret said that to prepare for the role, she spent a lot of time "doing Sue in the house." She'd walk around her apartment in character, and her husband, Jack Antonoff, hated it. And then, once she was on set with Sue's fake boobs and hair extensions, she could totally transform into the character.
"I spent a lot of time walking around my apartment, freaking my husband out," she told Collider.
11. Margaret said one of the more challenging scenes for her was Sue's sexy dance class. Even though Margaret is a dancer in real life, she said she was in tears the first time she rehearsed the scene. “That specific kind of sexuality doesn’t lend itself to me," she told The Sunday Times.
She added that she even "got wasted first thing in the morning," the day she had to film that scene because she was so nervous to do it in front of everybody. Tequila and weed got her through the day.
12. Demi said that the most challenging part for her was going in every day and "highlighting" the parts about herself that were the "least glamourous."
"I think we both had aspects that were very liberating at the end," Demi told Collider.
13. One of the film's most heartbreaking scenes is when Elisabeth is about to meet up with a friend. Unsatisfied with her appearance, she angrily reapplies her makeup over and over again. After about 11 takes Demi's face was "raw" and she "couldn't do it anymore". The film's makeup team stepped in and told Coralie they were finished with the scene.
"It was a certain kind of madness," Demi told Variety. "There are three setups to that scene, and easily 15 takes for each. Also, the idea of looking at yourself in the mirror and seeing only what’s wrong — it’s like you’re seeking to make yourself uglier, so you can look how you feel."
She added, "I got to a point where I couldn’t do it anymore. And Coralie still wanted one more take. The makeup artist stepped in and said, 'We’re done.'"
“My concern was she’s going to hurt herself. At the end, I did something that I never did on a movie, ever. I told Coralie, ‘That’s enough. You cannot do it anymore because she’s going to have a rash all around the face’,” prosthetics designer Pierre-Olivier Persin recalled.
14. Margaret is actually the one wearing that monster prosthetic suit, aka Monstro, during the film's third act. "I was alone in that thing. I was running into things. It was a torture chamber. The amount of videos I have of me like, 'I can’t do this anymore.' It was eight days. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot," she told The Sunday Times. "We would just go until I had a panic attack. And the tempting thing is you want to peel it off, but of course you can’t do that, because you’ll bring your skin with you."
“I was in there, with [Demi’s] face plastered onto my own body,” she added.
15. After Sue abuses the stabilizer, Elisabeth transforms into a sickly-looking old woman. For these scenes, Demi had to sit in the makeup chair for about six to nine hours while applying the prosthetics and then another two hours to take it all off.
16. Prosthetics designer Pierre-Olivier Persin even asked Coralie if she'd rather use visual effects, like CGI, to create the film's body horror aspects, but she said no. Because the film was about our bodies, she wanted it to be as real as possible. However, one of the only CGI moments is when Demi's face is plastered on the back of Monstro.
“It’s really a movie about our bodies and about the reality of how we feel in our bodies. I needed to speak to the reality of the way our flesh can reflect our mental deformation, and I knew this had to exist for real,” Coralie told The Hollywood Reporter.