The Substance director not surprised by Demi Moore's late-career comeback

Demi Moore's Golden Globe Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy win for The Substance has, almost overnight, transformed the 1990s megastar into a seemingly unlikely favourite for the Oscars.

In her acceptance speech on Jan 5, the 62-year-old - who once generated headlines as much for her love life and naked Vanity Fair covers as for her hit films - said she had long been dismissed as a "pop-corn actress" and had never "won anything as an actor".

But for Coralie Fargeat (above right), the French director who also wrote Moore's blood-drenched body horror film, there is nothing surprising about the late-career reappraisal her leading lady is enjoying.

"It was so moving to see Demi on that stage," Fargeat, 48, told AFP the morning after Moore's big win.

The movie allowed audiences "to see who she is as an actress, and not project any more the stereotype that if you're beautiful, you can't be a good actress".

"It is being called a comeback. But she has always been here," Fargeat added.

Society's obsession with pigeonholing and pinning expiration dates on women is the core premise of The Substance, which opened in Singapore cinemas in September.

In the film, Moore's character Elisabeth is a fading movie star who is abruptly fired from her hit TV fitness show when she turns 50.