Embodying her character in The Substance challenged Margaret Qualley to take new dangers onscreen.
Qualley, 29, tells PEOPLE the provocative body-horror movie, directed by Coralie Fargeat (Revenge), was “actually exterior of my consolation zone.”
“I assume, for me, it is one thing I’ve actually by no means executed,” the actress says of enjoying Sue, a youthful model of her costar Demi Moore‘s character, Elisabeth Sparkle, who’s hyper-sexualized all through the movie. “I feel I’ve deliberately gone the opposite route all through my profession.”
In The Substance, Qualley takes on the position of Sue, a younger clone of Moore’s getting old actress who’s created by a bootleg serum. The movie options nudity and loads of onerous to look at moments as the 2 ladies, who share one consciousness, inject themselves with the movie’s titular serum.
“I knew it was going to be an enormous problem for me,” The Maid star shares of the position. Qualley went on so as to add that the nudity in movie “very a lot serves the aim of this story.”
She continues, “It is a highway you need to go down with a view to carry this to life. And I used to be enthusiastic about that problem.”
Moore, 61, agrees. “It is a part of what makes it attention-grabbing and thrilling, pushing your self, as a result of I feel you in the long run, acquire extra of your self once you face that no matter could be a person’s discomfort, concern. I do not actually take a look at it as concern as a lot as simply vulnerability,” she says.
For Qualley, the movie’s themes have a sure universality to them: Elisabeth and Sue are craving for youth, fame and recognition — all issues which can be prized by society.
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“We have all chosen, highlighted totally different elements of ourselves to current to the world, for a way you need individuals to see you,” the actress notes. “And never that lots of Sue’s attributes match the invoice for those that I am presenting to the world. But it surely does not imply that they don’t seem to be someplace inside me.”
The Substance, which costars Dennis Quaid, is in theaters now.