Margaret Qualley pictured at the 2025 Golden Globes.Photo:Michael Buckner/GG2025/Penske Media via Getty
Michael Buckner/GG2025/Penske Media via Getty
Margaret Qualley’s skin went through a lot on the set ofThe Substance.
In a Jan. 13 episode of Josh Horowitz’sHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, the Golden Globe nominee, 30, got real about the effects wearing prosthetics for the film had on her skin.
At one point during the interview, the actress said her skin became so damaged that her face was even cut from certain shots.
Margaret Qualley in “The Substance”.MUBI/Youtube
MUBI/Youtube
Her acne lasted after filming forThe Substancewrapped and continued when she began working on her next film,Kinds of Kindness.
“So, you know the character that has all that acne? That was just my acne from the prosthetics,” said Qualley, who plays characters Vivian, Martha, Ruth and Rebecca. “And I was like, ‘Oh this is kind of perfect. I’m playing all these different characters — for one of them we’ll use all my crazy prosthetic acne.’ It took me probably a year to recover physically from all of it."
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Margaret Qualley in “The Substance”.MUBI
MUBI
Intense face makeup wasn’t the only thing Qualley endured when she transformed intoThe Substance’s Sue. In a September 2024 interview withThe Sunday Times, the star revealed that she worefake boobsbecause director Coralie Fargeat envisioned her character as an ‘80s bombshell with a Jessica Rabbit-type figure.
“Unfortunately, there is no magic boob potion, so we had to glue those on,” Qualley said. “Coralie found an incredible prosthetic team to endow me with the rack of a lifetime — just not my lifetime.”
Demi Moore behind the scenes of ‘The Substance’ and on the red carpet.Demi Moore/Instagram; Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Demi Moore/Instagram; Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Qualley’s co-starDemi Moore, whowon her first Golden Globeon Jan. 5 for her performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, also underwent ashocking transformation— courtesy of prosthetics that depicted exaggerated wrinkles and other stark features — to tell the tale of dangerous beauty standards and the extreme measures taken to achieve them.The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
“I was in there, with [Demi’s] face plastered onto my own body,” Qualley told the outlet. “I was alone in that thing. I was running into things. It was a torture chamber. The amount of videos I have of me like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ It was eight days. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot.”
source: people.com
