Demi Moore is celebrating Mikey Madison’s best actress Oscar win Sunday night.
After nabbing a SAG, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, Moore, 62, was the perceived front-runner to take home her first Academy Award for her role as an aging actress who undergoes an experimental treatment to try and recapture her youth in The Substance.
But Madison was the surprise winner for her portrayal as a sex worker in Anora, which also won best picture.
“It’s a huge honour, one that I think will soak in later down the line,” Madison said backstage. “I really did not expect it at all.”
But with awards season now in her rearview, Moore has expressed her gratitude and offered words of encouragement to Madison.
“I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude for this journey,” Moore captioned an Instagram video that showed her getting ready for the Oscars ceremony. “It’s been the ride of a lifetime and we’re just getting started! So grateful for my team, my fellow nominees, and everyone who has made this experience so full of joy and light… And a huge congratulations to Mikey Madison — can’t wait to see what you do next.”
After the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Moore said she was surprised by The Substance’s success with critics and audiences.
“I am just so filled with joy, I feel like I’m bursting … I’m just really trying to stay present so I don’t miss any of it,” Moore told ABC on the red carpet.
But a win would have validated a career that began over 40 years ago. When Moore was honoured with a Golden Globe in January, she paid tribute to her own ups and downs in Hollywood.
“Thirty years ago I had a producer tell me I was a popcorn actress. And at that time, I made that to mean that I wasn’t allowed to have this. That I could do movies that were successful and made a lot of money but that I wouldn’t be acknowledged and I bought in and I believed that,” Moore said as she accepted her award.
“A few years ago I thought that this was it, maybe I’ve done what I was supposed to do and then 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 you’re not done.”
After her disappointing loss Sunday night, lip reader Nicola Hickling told the Daily Mail that Moore’s reaction displayed a trace of disappointment. “Demi says ‘nice,’ but she isn’t smiling when she says it,” Hickling alleged. “Her body is almost nodding like she had to force herself to say it.”
Jack Antonoff — who is married to Moore’s Substance co-star Margaret Qualley — also went viral for his shocked look when he heard Madison’s named called.
“No, but Jack Antonoff’s reaction to Mikey winning that Oscar is so funny,” someone tweeted alongside a video of the moment.
An insider told Page Six that Moore “can’t help but feel heartbroken” after the loss.
“Demi is taking this loss very hard because she felt like this was finally her chance to take home an Academy Award,” they told the outlet.
But according to the insider, “A ton of people came up to Demi at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party to show their love and support for her work.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter the morning after, Madison, 25, said she was “in a dreamlike state” and revealed she traded messages with Moore after she took home her statuette.
“I texted with Demi, who I adore,” Madison said. “She’s one of the sweetest, kindest women I’ve ever met, and I’m so grateful that I was able to meet her and witness her brilliance and talent in person. I adore her and I can’t wait to see what she does next, what kind of characters she brings us. I think we’re all so ready and excited to see that.”