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PHOTOGRAPHS BY COLUMBIA PICTURES, EVERETT COLLECTION, MOVIESTORE COLLECTION,COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL, PARAMOUNT, ALAMY, GETTY IMAGESLife stories‘YOU’RE EITHERSEXY OR YOU’REA MOTHER, SOI CHALLENGED THAT’budget of $22 million, it was
released in July 1990 and
eventuallybecame the highest
grossing film of the year,
earning around £400 million
worldwide. Her next couple of
films failed to be as successful,
but Moore was making ripples
in other ways. In 1991, she
caused shockwaves when
she appeared naked on the
cover ofVanity Fairwhile seven months pregnant with her
second daughter, Scout. Public opinion was split on the
appropriateness of the image, but Moore didn’t care. ‘While
you’re pregnant you’re made to feel not beautiful or sexually
viable,’ she said. ‘You’re either sexy, or you’re a mother. I didn’t
want to have to choose, so I challenged that.’ Moore was
also savvy about picking film roles that were cultural
conversation starters. InIndecent Proposal, she played a wife
who was offered a million dollars to sleep with a stranger,
sparking debate about the moral ramifications. AndDisclosure
saw her star as a boss sexually harassing her older male
employee (Michael Douglas).
By the time their third child, Tallulah, was born in 1994,
Moore and Willis were living in the town of Hailey in Idaho
to escape media scrutiny. Yet their departure from LA
in no way impacted on their careers. In 1996, Moore became
the highest paid actress in history when she received $12.1
million to play a single mum-turned-stripper in the satirical
thriller Striptease. Sadly, the film bombed and her next
major release, 1997’sG.I. Jane, for which she shaved her
head to play a Navy SEAL and earned
$10.7 million, performed just as
disappointingly. ‘I took a lot of
criticism, a lot of heat, got hit really
hard for both of these films, I think
because there was a lot of money
attached to [them],’ said Moore.A year later, she
and Willis separated,
saying their marriage
had suffered from too
much time spent apart
on film sets. The
divorce was finalised in
2000 and she reportedly
received a payout of
$86.7 million.
In 2003, the then
40-year-old made a
stunning comeback in Charlie’s
Angels: Full Throttle. Although she’d
worked hard on her body for
StripteaseandGI Jane, images of her
on set looking lean in a bikini sparked
speculation she’d had plastic surgery.
Moore later described the reports that
she’d spent $249,000 on a knee lift,
breast augmentation and liposuction
as ‘irritating’ and ‘not true’. ‘The
culmination for me was when there were multiple
reports I had my knees done,’ she said. ‘I thought:
“Wow, should I have been worried about my knees?”’
Firmly back in the spotlight, that same year Moore
began dating 25-year-old actor Ashton Kutcher. They
shrugged off question marks over the 15-year age gap to
marry in September 2005. ‘I love being with Demi, she
makes me a better person,’ Kutcher remarked about his
bride. The pair quickly settled into family life; Moore’s
daughters adored the actor and called him ‘Mod’, short
for ‘my other dad’. However, six years into the marriage,
tabloid reports began to surface that Kutcher had slept
with another woman on their wedding anniversary.
Moore, then 49, announced she was leaving him in November- The divorce took its toll, though. In 2012, the actress
collapsed at her home in LA and was taken to hospital, after
which it was claimed she had been taking nitrous oxide,
otherwise known as laughing gas, and reacted badly to
the drug. Her gaunt appearance, meanwhile, generated
accusations that she was anorexic. She eventually sought what
her publicist described as ‘professional assistance’ at a Utah
treatment centre to alleviate the stress she’d been under.
Moore’s career took a back seat during this troubled period
in her private life, but in 2017 she triumphantly returned to the
small screen to guest star inEmpire. Oscar nominee Taraji P
Henson said she loved working with her, describing the
actress as ‘funny and down to earth’. It was a glowing
endorsement for Moore after years in the wilderness.
Since then, she has voiced an animated series for children
calledAnimalsand appeared in the comedy-horrorCorporate
Animals, which premiered at Sundance this year. She will next
be seen in the TV adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1932
dystopian novel,Brave New World.
Moore is pragmatic about where
her career ranks in importance these
days, saying her outlook changed
after her health ‘took me down’ in - ‘My relationships are more
important,’ she said, ‘and what I do
comes second.’■
Clockwisefrom left:
thatscene from
Ghost;as Jordan
inG.I. Jane; with
AshtonKutcher in
2007; starring with
Cameron Diaz in
Charlie’s Angels:
Full Throttle.Bottom:
withdaughters
Tallulah, Rumer
and Scout in 2015