Demi Moore has spoken out about struggling with her professional identity in the wake of the 2003 action sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
Moore, 61, had just entered her forties when the film was released, and the actor says that she was impacted by criticism about her appearance in a scene where she wore a bikini.
“What’s interesting is I felt [criticism] more when I hit my 40s,” she told actor Michelle Yeoh for Interview magazine. “I had done Charlie’s Angels, and there was a lot of conversation around this scene in a bikini, and it was all very heightened, a lot of talk about how I looked.
“And then I found that there didn’t seem to be a place for me. I didn’t feel like I didn’t belong. It’s more like I felt that feeling of, I’m not 20, I’m not 30, but I wasn’t yet what they perceived as a mother.”
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, is a sequel to Charlie’s Angels (2000), itself an adaptation of the hit 1970s spy series about a trio of female espionage aces working for male boss Charlie Townsend.
In the film, Moore plays the villainous Madison Lee, a former Angel who now works as an independent intelligence agent.
“Where do I fit in? It was a time that felt, not dead, but flat,” Moore continued. “I don’t know if I’ve ever done that when I’ve come up against something that I don’t understand exists as a limitation.
“There was a moment, I have to say, where I started to wonder, is this really what I should be doing? Maybe that part of my life is complete. Not even over, but complete. Then I realised, if I’m questioning it, then I need to inject it with energy so that I know for sure.”
Moore’s next project, The Substance, drew a divisive reaction at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, though prompted some critics to suggest that Moore could be a serious contender come awards season.
