In a world – and a film industry – that is oft dismissive of women in general, and older women especially, this win feels damn good to behold.
Longtime actress Demi Moore, 62, snagged the Best Actress prize at the 2025 Golden Globes – for her starring performance in a horror movie, no less. (It’s not a genre that awards bodies tend to celebrate, to say the least.)
The movie she was featured in, “The Substance,” examines the concepts of ageism and the recurring dismissal of women no longer deemed “useful” by society through a mind-bending body horror story. It’s extremely visceral, and extremely relevant material – and recognition for her performance in it marks an especially sweet win for Moore, who recalled being dismissed by the film world’s elites for decades.
In one especially hurtful comment made to her years ago, she says a producer referred to her as a “popcorn actress.” Moore interpreted this to mean that Hollywood higher-ups viewed her as someone for whom critical acclaim and awards recognition would never come. “That I could do movies that were successful, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged,” she shared in her speech. “I bought in, and I believed that.”
That and other, similar jabs “corroded” her spirit and passion for acting over time, she continued, ultimately leading her to consider giving up her craft for good. That moment of doubt, she told the star-studded crowd at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, was when she received the script for “The Substance.” And with that, she added, “the universe told me: ‘You’re not done.’”
It’s a powerful message for all of us, really – to remember that for as long as we are here, as long as we are living, our stories have not yet ended. That there is more time, more still to do, and more to tell of us (until, of course, there isn’t).
But it’s an especially inspiring reminder for older women, who like Moore are routinely disregarded professionally and personally. Those of us who have entered into years and decades of life where we are, by our exhausting society’s impossible standards, considered to be waning in value, or spirit, or vitality – simply because we have lived longer. As if that is a testament to growing weakness, instead of enduring strength.
Moore also had some wise advice to pass on, helpful for anyone (of any age) who finds themselves confronting moments of profound doubt: “[W]hen 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 though accolades do not define our work, or whether or not we have succeeded in life, it is still worth celebrating any deserved, hard-won recognition we do receive, Moore also noted. “I celebrate this [award] 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 that I do belong.”
