Demi Moore's relentless pursuit of perfection: A lifelong struggle

A beautiful, tall brunette with delicate beauty never shied away from bold roles or nudity on screen. Knowing how important the body is in an actress's career, she never gave herself a break, even (or perhaps especially!) after giving birth. Today, she admits the pressure was too much.

In one of her latest interviews, Demi Moore shared memories of exhausting workouts after giving birth to her second daughter, Scout Willis, in 1991. At that time, the actress was living in Malibu with her then-husband, Bruce Willis. Every day, during the filming of "Indecent Proposal," Moore would ride her bike nearly 100 kilometres.

"I think she was, like, five or six months old when we were shooting that. So, I was feeding her through the night, getting up in the dark with a trainer, with headlamp, biking all the way to Paramount, wherever, even on location where we were shooting; then shooting a full day, which is usually a 12-hour day; and then starting all over again. Even just the idea of, like, what I did to my body, it's, like, so crazy, so ridiculous," Moore said in an interview for "CBS Sunday Morning."

Moore admitted that she had unrealistic expectations about her return to form after giving birth. "I put so much pressure on myself," the star of "Ghost" said.

"And I did have experiences of being told to lose weight. And all of those, while they may have been embarrassing and humiliating, it's what I did to myself because of that."

Demi Moore, who received an Emmy nomination, has three daughters with Bruce Willis, with whom she was in a 13-year relationship. Rumer was born in 1988, Scout in 1991, and Tallulah in 1994. Although Moore and Willis divorced in 2000, their family still spends a lot of time together, especially now that Bruce is dealing with frontotemporal dementia.

Demi Moore's latest film is the highly anticipated The Substance, which has been in Polish cinemas for a few days. The actress plays a TV show star who is "too old" to be on screen. Cornered by the industry's prevailing ageism, she turns to a mysterious substance that is supposed to rejuvenate her body and face.

Critics believe that in "The Substance," Demi Moore created the role of her life. "Demi Moore’s performance is nothing short of fearless. She’s playing, in some very abstract way, a version of herself (once a star at the center of the universe, now old enough to be seen by sexist Hollywood as past it), and her acting is rippled with anger, terror, despair, and vengeance" – wrote Owen Gleiberman from "Variety." The actress was known for her daring roles in her youth ("Indecent Proposal," "Disclosure"), but she was only awarded Golden Raspberries for them ("Striptease," "G.I. Jane"). An Oscar nomination for her role in "The Substance" seems almost certain. Especially since the Academy has never acknowledged her, a better opportunity may not come along.