Margaret Qualley reveals why her appearance took a year to return to normal after 'intense' role on The Substance

What was not particularly intended to be a box office blockbuster has become very much so, and both the Maid actress and her co-star Demi Moore have enjoyed plenty of awards season buzz, with the latter earning her first major Hollywood award after over 40 years in the industry.

Now, as the former ballet dancer gears up for the Oscars, she’s looking back on just how intensive filming the movie was.

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Speaking with Happy Sad Confused with host Josh Horowitz, Margaret first said: “I’m so grateful, Demi and I worked so hard on this,” noting: “It was a five-month shoot, it was super intense, it was at one rewarding and painful.”

Gushing about Demi, she added: “I’m so happy for her, I love her so much, I learned so much from her, I loved being around her, I’ve really, truly gained a friend from this experience.”

Directed by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance stars Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor, and her gruesome quest to preserve her youth.

Margaret Qualley in The Substance, 2024, by Coralie Fargeat — Margaret starred as Sue

“It terrified me, absolutely,” Margaret further said of the film, which required intense, monstrous prosthetics for both herself and Demi.

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She elaborated: “I’ve lived my life, my work life specifically doing the exact opposite of everything this movie does to me, I’ve sought out performances that go out in the other direction and I think that comes partially from the female idea that in order to garner respect you have to make yourself [do gruesome things.]”

Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley present the Award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama during the 82nd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on January 05, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California — Both she and Demi were nominated at the Golden Globes

“It was super terrifying to lean into all the things that I was told would make people hate me.”

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Margaret Qualley attends the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 05, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California — The actress at the Golden Globes

She also admitted that by the end of filming, her face was full of acne from all of the full body prosthetics.

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Photo shared by Margaret Qualley on Instagram of her in prosthetics for The Substance — She shared some BTS images of her prosthetics

“It took me probably like a year to recover physically from all of it,” she said, before calling back to one of the first shots in the film, which films her from below her skirt and omits her face.

“That was just because my face was so [expletive] up by that time that they couldn’t shoot my face anymore,” she said with a laugh.

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