2024 In Review: Let's Talk About My Favorite Scene in The Substance
How one scene left me sobbing in the theater
As someone who has been actively covering film for more than 17 years now, watching the upward trajectory of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance — from Cannes to becoming an Oscar-nominated film — over the last 9 months has made me so happy.
As a huge fan of her previous film, Revenge (which is currently streaming on Shudder and AMC+), I was immediately struck by how well she was able to subvert the typical vengeance-fueled cinematic tropes to create something that continued to surprise me in every passing moment. Fargeat’s unforgettable exploration of sexual violence and its repercussions is something of a stunner, both on a physical and emotional level, and is a film whose message still resonates nearly 8 years later. I never doubted that whatever Coralie would do next wouldn’t hit just as hard as Revenge did, but somehow she exceeded my lofty expectations with The Substance.
And look, at this point, there has been so much said already about how and why The Substance is such a powerful movie. There have been plenty of great thinkpieces that have discussed how Fargeat’s second film explores society’s brutally absurd standards for female beauty and how insidious the destructive power of celebrity is. And I’ve seen a few writers who handle the genre beat lauding the fact that while The Substance delivers one of the best-crafted social commentaries in decades, it also happens to be an audacious grotesquerie of body horror in equal measure, earning its reputation as a “must-see” event (“Screaming” Mad George must have been positively giddy watching the final theater sequence).
But there is one scene in particular that I did want to write about as it hasn’t left my mind since I first saw it.
There are a lot of moments of profundity to be found throughout The Substance, especially if you’re a woman of a certain age (and I am a woman of a certain age), but the scene that cut right through my soul was when Elisabeth Sparkle (played to perfection by Demi Moore) breaks down while preparing to meet up with Fred, her old classmate. At this point in the movie, Elisabeth realizes that her counterpart Sue (also played to perfection by Margaret Qualley) is starting to overshadow her, and she is desperate for some kind of validation, as the cruel world she exists in offers Elisabeth very little in the way of support. Fred represents someone who appreciates her existence in other ways, and Moore’s character is clearly yearning for someone to recognize her humanity and appreciate her beauty.
At first, Elisabeth puts on a stunning red dress, does up her hair, and applies her makeup — she is a vision. At least to us. To her, Elisabeth can only see the faults in her appearance, especially in comparison to Sue’s lifeless body lying nearby. Sue continues to fuss over how she looks, culminating in heartbreak as Moore’s character never makes it to her date with Fred. If you had to show someone one scene in The Substance that perfectly encapsulates the messages behind Fargeat’s script, this is the one.
It also happened to be the scene in the film that hit me the hardest, because I’ve had my fair share of “Elisabeth Moments” over the last few years. This might have been the first time I’ve felt like someone else out there fully “got” all the bad stuff that has been going on in my head, often making me my own worst enemy (I have joked for years that no one can possibly hate me as much as I hate myself).
Also, I just want to pre-apologize to anyone reading this who may have heard me discussing this on the F! This Movie podcast already, but it’s been a few weeks since I talked about all of this there, and I was still feeling compelled to write about it here. Bear with me if this is something you’ve heard before.
So, a lot of this started with me back in 2011. I had gotten shingles, which was bad enough, but I also made the mistake of dyeing my hair while still dealing with shingles, and my body had such a horrific response to all of that, I haven’t been able to dye my hair since (which is no fun as more and more grey hair keeps creeping up on me). That day though was like a horror show in itself as it was Valentine’s Day and we had planned to go spend the day at Disneyland to celebrate. But over time, my head began to swell up and before I knew it, my scalp was actually leaking fluid that was dripping down my face and neck that experience felt like it was something straight out of a Cronenberg film.
From there, things got even worse: my skin flared up and my entire body was covered in all these little bumps that were both itchy and painful. Skin specialists at USC could not figure out what was happening (I went through months of tests and so many doctors would come in to see my “case” because no one knew what I was dealing with) so I just went on a topical steroid therapy and was told that interacting with any kind of dye was a no-no from here on out. And while it took a few months for the steroids to do their job (I can’t even explain how not fun it was to attend my first SXSW that year being covered from the neck down in goo while trying to look “professional” at the same time), they did work and my skin mostly healed up (I still get these little patches though 14 years later which kinda sucks, but that is life).
The biggest downside of using those meds was the fact that, after spending 2 years losing over 140 pounds, I immediately gained more than 50 pounds back in less than 3 months (my own hormonal issues didn’t help either, of course). I felt utterly defeated. And nothing was working to help get things back on track — in fact, they just continued to get worse. I had an editor at that point who once made a joke about how he wished I was more “camera worthy,” as I was beginning to do more and more junkets at that point in my career, and I can still hear his words and blood-curdling chuckle in my head to this very day.
And for years, as my weight ballooned more and then eventually leveled out at an “Ah, f—k it” level, I was content to just continue to disappear however I could despite having a profession where I had to “put myself out there.” So, I just figured out ways to work around it. I’d cut myself out of interview junkets, I’d take only pictures from the waist up, and very rarely did I take photos of myself at events. I mean, I maybe have 100 selfies of myself on my phone from the last 14 years because I just wanted to be as invisible as I could be, even though I knew I had value in other ways. But I was convinced that no one needed to see my chubby face talking to celebrities, so I did what I needed to do.
There was also a situation that happened and I ended up naming it “The Kesha Episode” as that was probably the most “Elisabeth Moment” I have ever experienced during adulthood.
So, I have absolutely loved Kesha for years now, and we had tickets to see her perform at the Palladium (LMFAO opened, just to give you all the early 2010s feels). This was in the wake of all the shingles shenanigans so I was very conscientious at the time of how much I hated being out in public in any way, shape, or form. But I loved my girl Kesha and we had tickets, so why wouldn’t I go?
As I started getting ready that night, I began to realize that I was going to a show that would predominantly be attended by adorable ladies in their twenties, and I was the antithesis of all that. So I kept trying to figure out what to wear and just completely melted down. And it was so silly because like, what do you wear to a concert anyway? Jeans and a T-shirt (I am not known for my high fashion, lol). But my frustrations hit the point where I convinced myself that I should just stay home. I didn’t belong there. I didn’t belong anywhere. I was in tears and I know my other half had no idea how to even deal with me in these moments (he was so patient though and allowed me some space to work things out, which I really appreciated).
Eventually, I realized that if I didn’t go, I would be missing out on something I really wanted to do (plus, those tickets were my birthday present that year so it would have been a waste in that regard, too). So, I just put on a brave face and got it together so we could go and try to salvage the night. I missed a majority of LMFAO (which was a bummer, I loved those silly ass dudes), but I had an amazing time seeing Kesha perform, and I know how much I would have regretted staying home.
So, back to The Substance.
When this scene centered around Elisabeth’s self-loathing and doubt unfolded, and I started to understand just what Fargeat was exploring in this sequence, I first let out a tiny gasp and then my heart caught up to everything I was watching. I was stunned. It was like someone finally understood all these things I felt about myself and how these little ways that I continued to devalue myself were so extremely harmful and they can culminate in some rather damaging ways if left unchecked. What started off as some tears haphazardly rolling down my cheeks evolved into me pretty much sobbing into a handful of tear-soaked theater napkins by the end of that whole segment in the film. Holy shit.
What’s been even more amazing is hearing how other people out there have deeply related to that scene in The Substance as well, as it not only made me feel a little less alone but it also made me realize that we can all be our own worst enemies if we don’t start appreciating ourselves the right way.
I also think it’s pretty incredible how this film has become something of a parallel to Demi Moore’s career as of late as well. In The Substance, Elisabeth Sparkle wasn’t being respected for the woman that she was, and Moore has been greatly underappreciated throughout most of her career but definitely in the last few years (I loved her on Empire and she was also great in the indie dark comedy Corporate Animals, too). It just feels like what’s going on with Demi these days is a 180 in comparison to her character’s experiences throughout the film (which has been a lovely surprise), and that gives me a little hope that perhaps things might get better for us women who are “of a certain age.”
To put a pin in all of this, I just wanted to share an excerpt from Demi’s speech at this year’s Golden Globes, as it’s something that I think should be engrained in all of us to remind us that we are worthy and we have value even if it feels like the world has left us behind.
