Margaret Qualley says filming ‘The Substance’ took her way out of ‘comfort zone’
Opening up about the challenges of shooting the edgy, nudity-packed movie, Margaret Qualley has said making her new film ‘The Substance’ took her way out of her “comfort zone”.
Margaret Qualley says making her edgy new film ‘The Substance’ took her way out of her “comfort zone”.
The actress, 29, who is the daughter of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ actress Andie MacDowell, 66, shot to fame thanks to her roles in ‘The Leftovers’ and ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’, and has now opened up about the challenges of shooting her latest role alongside 61-year-old Demi Moore.
She told People about how the body-horror film, directed by Coralie Fargeat, 48, was “really outside of my comfort zone”: “I guess, for me, it’s something I’ve really never done.
“I think I’ve intentionally gone the other direction throughout my career.
“I knew it was going to be a big challenge for me.”
But Margaret added the nudity in the movie was not exploitative and “very much serves the purpose of this story”.
She added: “It’s a road you have to go down in order to bring this to life. And I was excited about that challenge.”
Margaret has told how she got “wasted” on drugs and tequila to get through filming one particularly raunchy scene in ‘The Substance’.
She told The Sunday Times: “That specific kind of sexuality doesn't lend itself to me.”
Margaret added she cried in a bathroom when she first rehearsed a scene in which her TV aerobics instructor character Sue does a sexed-up dance wearing a skimpy workout outfit because she felt “so deeply ashamed” making it.
She went on about how she added marijuana and alcohol into the emotional mix to get through the shoot: “And still, day of, I just got wasted first thing in the morning because I was like, I can’t do this in front of everybody.”
Margaret’s Sunday Times profile said “a combination of weed and tequila provided Dutch courage” helped her cope with the scene.
‘The Substance’ tells of Demi as a washed-up fitness guru who takes a mystery black market drug to create a younger, sexier version of herself, played by Margaret.
