Demi Moore became the highest paid female actor in the world when she landed a $12.5 million payday for 1996’s “Striptease,” and that’s when the backlash against her started. During a discussion on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast while promoting “The Substance,” the actor recalled people trying to tear her down as soon as she started making money that rivaled male actors.
“Well, with ‘Striptease,’ it was as if I had betrayed women, and with ‘G.I. Jane,’ it was as if I had betrayed men,” Moore said. “But I think the interesting piece is that when I became the highest-paid actress — why is it that, at that moment, the choice was to bring me down? I don’t take this personally. I think anyone who had been in the position that was the first to get that kind of equality of pay would probably have taken a hit. But because I did a film that was dealing with the world of stripping and the body, I was extremely shamed.”
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Moore was married to fellow mega-star Bruce Willis at the time of her “Striptease” payday, and while she never compared her career to his she was aware of the salaries he was making for his films and thought it was totally fair to be making what she earned on “Striptease.”
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“It wasn’t about comparing myself to him. Yes, I saw what he got paid,” Moore said. “It was really more about: ‘Why shouldn’t I? If I’m doing the same amount of work, why shouldn’t I?’ And it’s no different than when I did the cover for Vanity Fair pregnant. I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, why women when they were pregnant needed to be hidden? Why is it that we have to deny that we had sex? That’s the fear, right, that if you show your belly, that means, oh, my gosh, you’ve had sex.”
During a recent cover story for Variety, Moore said landing her record-breaking “Striptease” salary was “so powerful for me because it wasn’t just about me; it was about changing the playing field for all women. But because I was portraying a stripper, I betrayed women.”
“The narrative quickly became ‘Well, she’s only getting paid that number because she’s playing a stripper.’ It hit me really hard. But at the same time, I understood that anybody who steps out first is going to take the hit. That goes for anybody challenging the status quo.”
Moore’s new film “The Substance” opens in theaters Sept. 20 from Mubi. Listen to her full chat on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast here.
