DEMI MOORE: BREAKING DOWN BEAUTY STEREOTYPES

ON HOW GORY NEW FILM GAVE HER THE 'GIFT' OF SEEING HERSELF ANEW

- DIMITRI PORRINI

Demi Moore has become part of an elite group of older actresses confronting stereotypes and taking Hollywood by storm.

Along with Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, Demi is starring in films that challenge and question as well as entertain and at 61, she is enjoying a career renaissance.

One of the film industry's biggest stars during the 1980s and 1990s, when she appeared in hits including Ghost, St Elmo's Fire and Indecent Proposal, the actress took a break from the big screen to raise her three children with former husband Bruce Willis - Rumer, now 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 30.

Her eight-year marriage to actor Ashton Kutcher, 15 years her junior, brought her back into the headlines after the couple liber married in 2005.

But it is her turn in new body-horror movie The Substance, in which she stars as an ageing TV fitness instructor who signs up for a mysterious medical regime that promises to create the perfect version of herself (played by 30-year-old Margaret Qualley), that is causing the latest buzz.

She's even being tipped for an Oscar nomination.

Here, the actress explains what attracted her to the role and how she hopes it will change attitudes.

Demi, do you think we're in an interesting period in cinema, with several films dealing with important themes relating to women?