Margaret Qualley Spills the Secret Behind Her Jaw-Dropping Cleavage in ‘The Substance’
Margaret Qualley is sharing the intense details of what she went through to film her latest movie, The Substance.
The film features Demi Moore as a famous woman who takes a drug to become a younger version of herself, played by Qualley. To get the specific look the director wanted, the production team had to use a lot of prosthetics and heavy makeup.
The actress explained to The Sunday Times that she had to wear fake body parts to change her shape. She joked about the process by saying, Unfortunately there is no magic b*** potion, so we had to glue those on. She credited the director, Coralie Fargeat, for finding a great team to help with the transformation. Qualley said the team was able to endow me with the rack of a lifetime, just not my lifetime.
The physical work for the role was very painful and difficult for her. According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, she had to wear a heavy suit that mixed her features with Demi Moore’s features. Qualley described the feeling of wearing the prosthetics by saying, I was in there, with [Demi’s] face plastered onto my own body. She also said the experience felt like a torture chamber and that she was constantly bumping into things while wearing the heavy gear.
The filming process was so hard that it even affected her mental health. She admitted that the crew would keep filming until she had a panic attack. Even taking the makeup off was dangerous because it could hurt her skin. She explained that The tempting thing is you want to peel it off, but of course you can’t do that, because you’ll bring your skin with you.
Margaret Qualley confirmed that the boobs shown in ‘The Substance’ (2024) are not real. They were silicone prosthetics created by expert Pierre Olivier Persin. She also wore pads on her hips.
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Beyond the physical changes, Qualley also had to deal with the emotional stress of the role. She had to perform a confident dance that made her feel very nervous and emotional during practice. The movie has been a big topic of conversation since it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival because of these extreme scenes.
Margaret Qualley is currently one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood. After her success in the show Maid, she has several new projects coming up in 2026. She is set to star in a new thriller called Honey Don’t! and will also appear in a movie called Victorian Psycho. It is clear that she is willing to take on very difficult roles to grow as an artist.
It is incredible that actors are willing to go through so much pain just to make a movie look real. However, it sounds scary that she had to work until she had panic attacks just to get a scene right. I think there should be more focus on keeping actors safe and comfortable on set, even for big horror movies.
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