Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!! Today is the first day of Women In Horror Month, so I wanted to start off by dedicating a post for one of my favorite horror films, The Substance! The Substance brilliantly held a finger to toxic society with its original and tragic concept. So, be sure to respect the balance, prepare to pump it up, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com, instagram.com, and facebook.com)

(WARNING: PICTURES CONTAIN GRAPHIC SPECIAL EFFECTS!!)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• Ray Liotta was cast as Harvey back in February 2022, but he passed away in May before he could film any of his scenes, and Dennis Quaid ended up stepping in. The film’s director, Coralie Fargeat mentioned Liotta in her “Thank You Notes” during the credits.
• Margaret Qualley (Sue) confirmed that her breasts in the film were not her own. They were prosthetics that were designed by Pierre Olivier Persin, a French makeup artist.

• In the film, Elisabeth (Demi Moore) turned 50 years old. Demi Moore was actually almost 60 when she was shooting the film.
• Demi Moore felt vulnerable and nervous about being fully nude in the film. She credited her “other half”, Margaret Qualley for making her feel comfortable on set. Other than the prosthetic breasts, Qualley also performed completely nude.

• Demi Moore admitted that when she read the script, she was reminded of the script for the movie Ghost. Both times, she felt that it would either be amazing or a disaster. That was crucial for her to accept the role.
• Demi Moore wasn’t Coralie Fargeat’s first pick for Elisabeth Sparkle. Moore met with Fargeat in Paris, where she gave her a copy of her 2019 memoir. The memoir ultimately convinced Fargeat due to its depiction of her relationship to her body during the early and peak years of her career.

• Dennis Quaid was so committed to making Harvey’s shrimp eating scene as gross as possible, he ended up eating about 4 pounds of shrimp.
• Demi Moore stated that the full mirror sequence took at least 15 takes for each scene, and at the end of the day, her face was completely raw.

• Demi Moore described the essence of the film as a blend between The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Death Becomes Her, and a Jane Fonda workout video.
• The phone number for The Substance (555-0199) is a fictional number that’s actually used in quite a few films, including American Beauty and The Insider.

• For the point of view shots, Coralie Fargeat operated the camera herself, and she sometimes “played” the characters for the shots, wearing the appropriate costumes.
• Due to her performance in this film, this is the first time Demi Moore won a major award (Golden Globe), and it’s the first time she was ever nominated for an Oscar in her entire career.

• For the shots of The Substance needle being injected, Coralie Fargeat used her own arm.
• In all of her scenes with Dennis Quaid, Demi Moore only had one line of dialogue.

• Sue’s first episode of Pump It Up is an homage to Eric Prydz’ music video, Call On Me. This includes the costumes, choreography, and shot composition.
• The film was shot in France. Elisabeth’s apartment view of Los Angeles was just a photograph backdrop.

• There were many references to The Shining in this film. The long red hallway in the TV studio, the red bathroom in the studio, and the shot of “Gollum” Elisabeth yelling at Sue’s lover from behind the bathroom door. The colors and the camera angles were a direct homage.
• This is Coralie Fargeat’s first American feature film.

• Because they didn’t have an actor for the Substance Voice yet, Coralie Fargeat read his dialogue on set to provide a temporary track. After a lengthy casting process, Fargeat picked actor Yann Bean, who was luckily living in Paris at the time.
• In some scenes, Sue is wearing star-shaped earrings. This is a reference to Coralie Fargeat’s previous film, Revenge where the heroine wore a large, star-shaped earring.

• When listening closely to Sue’s audition tape, you can hear that she says she’s 25 years old. Harvey’s rant about women peaking at 25 left a mark on Elisabeth’s psyche and that’s why Sue emerged as a 25-year-old.
• To prepare for her role, Margaret Qualley walked around in her home in character as Sue. Her husband absolutely hated it and he found it unnerving.

• Sue was originally written as a blonde in the script, and she was given her namesake to subconsciously evoke Lolita and Marlyn Monroe. Coralie Fargeat chose the name Elisabeth for its “iconic resonance” with the stars of Old Hollywood, and Sparkle because of its associations with happiness and to “shine and be under the light.”
• Coralie Fargeat came up with the film’s birth scene while she was in the shower. It was the first scene she came up with and she considers it the most important scene in the film. When talking about it, she stated, “I didn’t even know who my character would be. It’s the first one that really came to mind, and it holds the core DNA of the movie as a true visceral experience with no words, making you feel what the characters are going to feel.”

• There were major differences in crew sizes for the film. 6 members were used for the lab shoots, 8 members were used for exterior scenes, and over 200 members were used for complex practical effects sequences in the studio.
• Coralie Fargeat wrote her script in extensive detail, almost like she was writing a novel. She even included sounds and specified close-ups in the script.

• Universal Studios had the rights to the film originally. However, the execs there demanded the ending to be changed and the rest of the film to be recut. Coralie Fargeat refused as it was against her contractual final cut privilege. They ended up pulling the film from distribution and she had to shop the film to other studios. MUBI ended up nabbing it and releasing it, and it ended up being the streaming site’s highest-grossing film.
• The birthing scene took 15 days to shoot.

• One nod to The Picture Of Dorian Gray lies with Elisabeth’s portrait. In The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Dorian hides his portrait into a private room and ends up stabbing it. In this film, Elisabeth throws her Sparkle Globe at her portrait, cracking it, and Sue moves the portrait to a private room.
• Margaret Qualley confirmed that she was the one inside the Monstro Elisasue prosthetic makeup at the end of the film. It took between 5-6 hours to put her in the full body suit. She described the process as torture, but she enjoyed getting to act the sequences out.

• David Cronenberg’s The Fly was also an influence on the film. Like Jeff Goldblum’s character in The Fly, Sue also lost her teeth, a fingernail, and her right ear.
• Demi Moore stated that her prosthetics took between 6-9 hours to apply and she could only work with them on for a few hours because they were delicate and would only last a limited time.

• When Monstro Elisasue’s arm snaps off and she sprays blood all over the New Year’s Eve audience, Coralie Fargeat operated the hose herself off camera. Over 36,000 gallons of blood were used for that scene alone.
• When describing the New Year’s Eve audience at the end of the film, Coralie Fargeat stated, “The audience, for me, represents society. I depicted Elisabeth’s genuine dream, which is to be loved by those people for who she really is. Having this explosion of blood and guts was a way to externalize the violence that I feel all those gazes and this beauty pressure put on us. It was a way for me to splatter it in the face of the audience to say, ‘Look at what you’re creating. You are responsible for this explosion.”

• Sue pulling a chicken leg out of her stomach is a visual reference to David Cronenberg’s films, Videodrome and eXistenZ, where characters pulled guns out of their own stomachs. The gun in eXistenZ was even made out of animal bones.
• During Elisabeth’s last workout video, she says, “Work those bikini bods! Do you want to look like a giant jellyfish on the beach?” This is a bit of foreshadowing as when Monstro Elisasue falls apart at the end of the film, what’s left of Elisabeth crawls to her star and then melts like a jellyfish on the beach.

• Another point of foreshadowing happened when Elisabeth threw her Sparkle Globe at her picture and it cracked directly over one of her eyes. Later, her final form, Monstro Elisasue is missing an eye on her main face.
• While filming Elisabeth’s breakdown scene where she furiously takes off and reapplies her makeup, Demi Moore’s skin became so raw and irritated. After 11 takes, the film’s makeup team urged Coralie Fargeat to stop doing any more takes, otherwise Moore could hurt herself or develop a severe rash on her face.
• The big bouquet of flowers sent to Sue had a note that reads, “Break a leg!” After Monstro Elisasue runs out of the studio, her leg completely breaks off before she falls apart.