Demi Moore's Emotional Golden Globes Acceptance Speech: ‘I Do Belong’

Lauren Puckett-Pope
·4-min read
82nd annual golden globes show
Read Demi Moore’s Golden Globes Acceptance Speech Rich Polk/GG2025 - Getty Images

When The Substance actress Demi Moore ascended the 2025 Golden Globes stage tonight to accept her award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, she began her speech on a note of vulnerability. She explained how, prior to earning her role in The Substance, she’d started to believe she was nothing more than a 'popcorn actress'—or so one producer had put it to her. But playing Elisabeth Sparkle in the 'magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers' horror-drama, Moore said, helped convince her 'of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me'.

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These comments echoed those Moore shared in her ELLE US cover story in November 2024, for which she was honored as one of ELLE’s Women in Hollywood. 'I changed my body multiple times through different roles, and I think I chose those roles, whether it was conscious or not, for the very opportunity to find some peace and self-love,' she said. 'And when I did find that, it was only by really surrendering and letting go of what the outside was going to look like.'

She continued, 'The more I appreciate the lines in the corner of my eyes—the more I can find beauty in the life that I’ve lived—the more my life has beauty.'

Read a transcript of Moore’s Golden Globes acceptance speech below:

'Oh wow. I really wasn’t expecting that. I’m just in shock right now.

I’ve been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor. And I’m just so humbled and so grateful.

Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a "popcorn actress" and, at that time, I made that mean that this [award] wasn’t something that I was allowed to have. That I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged, and I bought in and I believed that.

And that corroded me over time, to the point where I thought, a few years ago, that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete. Maybe I would—I’d done what I was supposed to do.

And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance. And the universe told me that you’re not done. And I am so grateful to [director] Coralie [Fargeat] for trusting me to step in and play this woman. Margaret [Qualley], for being the other half of me that I couldn’t have done without, for looking out for me. To the people who’ve been with me for over 30 years...all of the people who stood by me, especially the people who’ve believed in me when I haven’t believed in myself.

And I’ll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting is: In those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough or pretty enough, or skinny enough or successful enough, or basically just not enough. I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know, you will never be enough. But you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.’

And so today I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong. Thank you so much.'

You can watch Moore’s full speech below:

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