FILM · 2024 · UK
The Substance
24 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
24 Interesting Facts About The Substance
Interesting Facts (16)
- #001
Margaret Qualley has said in interviews that the breasts seen on her in the film aren't hers; they are prosthetics designed by French makeup artist Pierre Olivier Persin.
- #002
The film draws partly on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), about a man who escapes aging because the signs of it show up on his portrait instead of his body. There, though, the portrait doesn't just age; it grows more and more monstrous as a reflection of Gray's immoral life, much as Elisabeth's body starts rotting fast when Sue abuses The Substance. Gray hides the portrait in a more private room of his house and finally stabs it, which the film echoes when Elisabeth wrecks the Elisabeth poster in her living room and ends up hiding it in a back room.
- #003
Dennis Quaid was so set on making Harvey's notorious shrimp-eating scene as revolting as possible that he ended up eating two kilos (four pounds) of shrimp.
- #004
At TIFF, Demi Moore said her prosthetics took 6 to 9 hours to apply and she could only work a few hours in them, partly because the prosthetics were delicate and only lasted so long.
- #005
In the climax, when Monstro ElisaSue's hand is torn off and she sprays blood over the New Year's Eve audience and the studio, director Coralie Fargeat worked the hose herself off camera. She says more than 36,000 gallons of fake blood were used for that scene alone.
- #006
Coralie Fargeat has cited David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) as an influence; both films have the hero pulling a fingernail off a rotting finger and losing teeth.
- #007
The body parts Sue loses are the same ones Seth Brundle loses in The Fly (1986): a tooth, a fingernail and an ear.
- #008
Coralie Fargeat wrote a 146-page script with just 29 pages of dialogue, and likens her approach to writing a novel. It was extremely detailed: every sensation the audience would feel in the finished film, the sounds (with onomatopoeia like "SPLOSH" and "AAAGH") and sometimes even specific close-ups were on the page.
- #009
In all her scenes with Dennis Quaid, Demi Moore has only one line.
- #010
The Substance was shot in France; the view of Los Angeles from Elisabeth's apartment is a photographic backdrop.
- #011
From idea to release, the film took five years in all.
- #012
The Substance's phone number (555-0199) is a well-known fake number that turns up in many films, including The Insider (1999) and American Beauty (1999), where it is Lester Burnham's number.
- #013
Coralie Fargeat shot the point-of-view shots herself, sometimes in the right costume, "playing" the character's body on set.
- #014
The first part of Sue's "Pump it Up" routine, costumes, choreography and framing included, is a tribute to the music video for Eric Prydz: Call on Me (2004).
- #015
According to its distributor, it was the first body horror film allowed to screen in Vietnam, and only with 1 minute 30 seconds cut.
- #016
To prepare, Margaret Qualley walked around the house as Sue, which her husband found annoying and hated.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #017
Demi Moore said she was nervous and felt exposed doing full nudity at 59, but that Margaret Qualley, 27 at the time and playing the younger version of her character, made her feel at ease on set. Qualley also appears fully nude, though she has said the breasts on screen are prosthetics over her own. By coincidence, Qualley's mother, Andie MacDowell, had starred with Moore 40 years earlier in St. Elmo's Fire (1985), the film that helped launch both their careers.
- #018
At TIFF, Margaret Qualley confirmed that she was the one inside the "Monstro ElisaSue" prosthetics at the end. Later reports said the full-body suit took five to six hours to put on; Qualley called the process "torture," though she enjoyed playing the scenes.
- #019
For the view outside Elisabeth Sparkle's apartment, Coralie Fargeat chose a painted backdrop over green screen, feeling that a huge green wall in the background all the time would distract her and the actors.
Characters & Cast (2)
- #020
Demi Moore said in several interviews that reading this script reminded her of Ghost (1990), because it could just as easily turn out great or a disaster, and that taking the role meant a lot to her.
- #021
Dennis Quaid's sleazy producer Harvey is named after disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #022
The red-and-white bathroom and orange corridor at the TV studio are an obvious nod to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), not just in color but in the way characters are framed symmetrically in the middle of a long, narrow space.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #023
Demi Moore told Tracy Smith (CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley (1979)) that she did at least 15 takes of every shot in the full-mirror sequence, and by the end of the day her face was a mess.
Career & Awards (1)
- #024
Demi Moore wasn't Coralie Fargeat's first choice. At a meeting in Paris, Moore gave her a copy of her 2019 memoir, and it was the book, with its account of her relationship with her body in her early and peak years as a film star, that won Fargeat over.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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