Margaret Qualley Recounts Her Panic Attack on the Set of The Substance

Andie McDowell's daughter spoke about the making of Coralie Fargeat's blockbuster film. It was a trying shoot, both emotionally and physically.

A phenomenon at the last Cannes Film Festival, crowned with the Best Screenplay Award, the film by the Frenchwoman Coralie Fargeat, The Substancenever ceases to make the cinematographic world talk. A very current pop object, category “body horror”it tells the story of the transformation of a TV star – played by Demi Moore– who has become, at the dawn of her fiftieth birthday, too old for the small screen and who is offered a mysterious substance capable of miraculously rejuvenating her. This is where Margaret Qualleyaka Sue, arrives, a sexy and confident twenty-something, guaranteed “best version” of the host.

A few days before the American release of the film, the young actress confided in Los Angeles Times. One scene involving prosthetics particularly struck her. While the two female characters eventually become one, Margaret Qualley was forced to wear a particularly restrictive suit:

“I was in there, with Demi's face plastered on my own body, I was alone in that room. I was banging into things, it was a torture chamber. I have so many videos of me saying: “I can't do this anymore,” she says.

An ordeal which, for the needs of the narrative, will have finally lasted eight days and which, because of the functioning of the prosthesis, did not allow her to get out of the costume when she wanted. A real ordeal therefore.

“We kept going until I had a panic attack. The temptation is that you want to take it off, but of course you can't because you'll take your skin with you“, explains Andie McDowell's daughter.

The filming had hardly any downtime for the latter who had to keep a perfect figure:

“We represent perfection, don't we?she wonders. I was lucky that the nude scenes were top notch because over the course of those five months my ass was slowly deflating.“.

Margaret Qualley continues, transported:

“One of the reasons I was excited about this movie is that I've never really done something as head-on as this, where the character is superficial and supposed to be mega sexy. I've played a lot of monsters, so I consider myself lucky. It's more of a challenge than I thought it would be.“.

An extraordinary experience to see in cinemas from November 6th. Here is the trailer for The Substance :

Cannes 2024: The Substance puts the dose and explodes the counters [critique]