Margaret Qualley is candidly discussing the lingering repercussions of wearing prosthetics for her role in "The Substance." The actress, who portrays Sue in this chilling body horror flick, recently revealed on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast that her skin bore the brunt for nearly a year post-production.
"You see, during the opening credits when they're filming up my skirt, with palm trees all around and those long lenses capturing from below, it's solely because my face had been so severely affected by then that they couldn't shoot it anymore," Qualley elaborated to host Josh Horowitz.
The actress, who also shone in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," added that she was still battling acne stemming from the prosthetics when she embarked on her next film venture, "Kinds of Kindness." "So, remember that character with all the acne? That was my very own acne from the prosthetics," Qualley, who embodies the characters Vivian, Martha, Ruth, and Rebecca in Yorgos Lanthimos' movie, revealed. "And I thought, 'How perfectly serendipitous. I'm portraying these diverse characters—for one of them, we can just use all my crazy prosthetic-induced acne.' It took me approximately a year to physically recuperate from the whole ordeal."
"The Substance," which also stars Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid, revolves around a fading celebrity who takes a black-market drug—a cell-replicating substance that temporarily transforms her into a younger, improved version of herself.
Production designer Pierre Olivier-Persin previously shared with The Hollywood Reporter that Qualley also wore fake breasts in the movie, crafted through a live casting of the actress. "The process for every prosthetic is quite similar: You start with a live cast or scan, sculpt the desired changes, mold those sculptures, use silicon or any other material, attach them, and paint them," he explained.
