At the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, Demi Moore received her first acting award as Best Actress for her lead role in The Substance, a widely acclaimed body horror film that delves into the dark side of beauty and youth.

At 62, the actress’s win marked not only a personal triumph, but also a powerful statement against ageism in Hollywood – something Moore highlighted in her acceptance speech as she reflected on her extensive career, noting, “Despite working for like, over 45 years … this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor.”

Demi Moore's Triumph in The Substance and Its Powerful Message
In an emotional speech at the Golden Globes, Moore revealed that she was labelled a “popcorn actress” by a producer 30 years ago. “That corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete, maybe I’d done what I was supposed to do,” she continued.

That was when a script for The Substance came across her desk. “And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk…and the universe told me, ‘You’re not done.’”

In The Substance, Moore portrays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aerobics star whose life unravels after she is fired for being too old. As her character visibly deteriorates, she turns to drastic measures in an effort to cling onto her diminishing relevance in a society obsessed with youth. The film underscores the harsh reality that a woman’s value is rooted in her appearance, and that society would readily throw her away once she is “past her prime,” – something Moore experienced first-hand.

Ariana Grande’s Journey toward Natural Beauty 
Wicked actress and singer Ariana Grande echoed this sentiment during her acceptance of the Rising Star Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival on January 4. “I wanted to start by thanking my two friends: Botox and Juvederm,” the star jokingly quipped before clarifying in a follow-up interview that she has been “four years clean” from beauty injections, gesturing to her natural skin. “You see the lines? I love them.” 

The singer has spoken candidly about her use of Botox and lip fillers over the years, but has since embraced the aging process. During a September 2023 interview with Vogue, Grande spoke to her journey toward natural beauty, explaining that she had used makeup as a “disguise or something to hide behind” in her younger days. 

“But I think as I get older, I don’t love that being the intention behind it anymore,” she said. “I want to see my well-earned cry lines and smile lines. I hope my smile lines get deeper and deeper and I laugh more and more, and I just think aging can be such a beautiful thing.” 

Gray is the New Black: The Rising Visibility of Older Women
Moore and Grande are among a number of celebrities who are championing natural beauty and reclaiming the aging process. The Last Showgirl actress Pamela Anderson has gained recognition for appearing on the red carpet without makeup, while co-star Jamie Lee Curtis is proudly “pro-aging.”  

Hollywood has also seen a noticeable shift in its depiction of women in recent years, with older actresses increasingly cast in multifaceted roles in movies like Moore’s The Substance and Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl. The 2025 Golden Globes has further cemented this as seasoned actresses like Jodie Foster and Jean Smart were awarded for their roles in television series. 

Speaking to her role as a high-powered CEO caught up in an affair with a young intern in Babygirl, Kidman expressed gratitude at the opportunity of having played a character of such complexity, adding, “I was so lucky at this age…to be asked to do those things that you normally wouldn’t ask a woman in their 50s to do because you’re like, ‘Oh well, she’s too old.’”

Embracing Age: A New Era on Hollywood's Narrative of Women
In 2025, the popular adage that age is just a number seems to finally have made its way to Hollywood as part of a broader cultural movement that promotes transparency and authenticity, fighting the notion that women's value declines with age. 

Demi Moore’s acting comeback in The Substance is symbolic of this shift. In her Golden Globes acceptance speech, the actress reflects on the message of the film, saying, “In those moments when we don’t think we are smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough... you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.”