Demi Moore Says She Lost 20 Pounds, Got Shingles From ‘Intensity’ of Latest Role

Demi Moore says she “put it all on the line” for her latest role, but it didn’t come without consequences.

Moore plays a fictional A-list actor in “The Substance,” a buzzy horror movie about a new drug that lets its users rebirth themselves as younger, prettier versions of themselves. Of course, things go terribly wrong in the movie — and apparently they’ve done so in real life, too.

“To give you an idea of ​​the intensity, the first week I had off, when only Margaret (Qualley) was working, I got shingles,” Moore said in a wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, adding, “And I lost, like, 20 pounds.”

Shingles is a viral infection that can occur anywhere on the body and cause a painful rash. The varicella-zoster virus, which is the same virus that causes chickenpox and is responsible for shingles, can reactivate years after initial exposure—often due to stress.

“Oh, yeah,” Qualley interjected, “I had terrible acne for a long time.”

Qualley plays a seemingly “perfect” version of Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading star who decides to take a fictional drug. Determined to revive her career and rise from the proverbial ashes, the film’s trailer suggests that Sparkle achieves anything but that.

“You have to walk away feeling like you put everything on the table,” Moore told the L.A. Times. “That’s what it took, and that’s what you want to bring to it.”

Although the average audience has yet to see the film, The Substance premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews. The supposedly sharp satire of Hollywood’s impossible perfection currently has a 92% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film has already earned Moore an Oscar nod, as the once-ubiquitous star — who dominated the erotic thriller genre before a younger generation of actors emerged in Hollywood — takes on a character governed by the same entrenched beauty standards Moore herself struggles with.

“That’s what makes it such a powerful piece of work. What she does to herself is the most brutal thing,” Moore told the Times.

She continued: “(The script) took something that is very internalized violence against the self and externalized it in a way that allows the audience to have a little bit of objectivity and… see what we are doing to ourselves through this harsh, constant criticism and comparison.”

While the “Striptease” (1996) star is no stranger to nudity, Moore, now 61, recently admitted that she and Qualley required “a lot of talking” and “mutual trust” on the set of “The Substance.”

When it comes to her return to Hollywood, Moore hasn’t forgotten how fickle the spotlight can be.

She recalled that she did Striptease and G.I. Jane (1997) “back to back” and became “the highest paid actress” in Hollywood at the time, but faced cultural backlash from both male and female audiences who felt Moore was overexposed — and miscast.

“This moment was so powerful for me because it wasn’t just about me; it was about changing the rules of the game for all women,” the mother of three told Variety. “But because I played a stripper, I betrayed women. And because I played a soldier, I betrayed men.”

“I realized that whoever is first to stand up is going to get hit,” Moore continued. “That includes anyone who challenges the status quo.”