Demi Moore: Ghost star reveals why she went nude on-screen and in photo shoots

She is one of the most striking and glamorous actresses in the world and has been for more than 40 years. But Demi Moore has revealed the “biggest misconception” about her is that she has always “loved her body”.

The Ghost star, 61, admitted she even took roles involving nudity to get over her self-doubts.

She said: “One of the biggest misconceptions about me is that I loved my body.”

“The reality is, so much of it was me calling in certain projects that would give me an opportunity to overcome insecurities.”

In an interview with Variety magazine, she added: “It was the same with [posing nude for] the Vanity Fair covers. It was not that I loved it – it was about trying to free myself from the space of enslavement I had put myself in.”

Moore’s new film The Substance was given a 13-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

She stars as Elisabeth, an ageing fitness instructor who signs up for a mysterious medical regime that promises to create the perfect, younger version of herself – played by Margaret Qualley, 29.

In one full-frontal scene, Moore’s character examines her own nude body before Qualley’s character is “birthed”.

Moore has not shied away from such scenes in the past, either.

She appeared nude while playing a 17th-century Puritan in The Scarlet Letter in 1995, and again when she starred in Striptease in 1996.

The actress has also graced her fair share of magazine covers, including the January 1981 issue of adult magazine Oui.

In August 1991, Moore bared all on the cover of Vanity Fair while seven months pregnant with the second of her three daughters. And a year later she posed for Vanity Fair again, under the title “Demi’s Birthday Suit”.

She also stripped off in October 2019 for Harper’s Bazaar.

Speaking at Cannes in May, Moore said nude scenes in The Substance were made easier by Qualley because she was “a great partner who I felt very safe with”.