Margaret Qualley Reveals It Took a Whole Year for Her Skin to Recover from the Face Prosthetics Used in ‘The Substance’

Margaret Qualley recently opened up about the toll prosthetics took on her skin while filming the horror movie The Substance. During an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actress shared that the heavy face prosthetics caused severe skin irritation, which took nearly a year to heal.

Qualley revealed that by the end of filming, her skin was so damaged that the director, Coralie Fargeat, had to avoid filming her face in certain scenes. Referring to a specific moment in the opening credits, she explained, “At the end, when they’re shooting up my skirt and there are palm trees all around with long lenses from the bottom, it’s because my face was so messed up they couldn’t shoot it anymore.”

The effects of the prosthetics lingered even after filming wrapped. When Qualley began shooting her next project, Kinds of Kindness, the acne caused by the prosthetics was still visible.

Interestingly, this worked to her advantage in one of her roles. “You know the character with all that acne? That was just my acne from the prosthetics,” she said. “I thought it was kind of perfect for one of the characters. It took me about a year to recover physically.”

The Substance, which also stars Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid, has garnered attention during award season, with Moore winning her first Golden Globe for her role as Elisabeth Sparkle. The film explores the story of an aging TV star who takes a mysterious drug that temporarily creates a younger, more marketable version of herself.

Beyond the facial prosthetics, Qualley also underwent a physical transformation to play Sue. In a previous interview, she mentioned wearing fake breasts designed to give her character an exaggerated, Jessica Rabbit-like figure. “There’s no magic potion for that, so we had to glue them on,” she joked.

Demi Moore, too, underwent a striking transformation for the film, using prosthetics to depict exaggerated wrinkles and features. The detailed work was part of the vision brought to life by special effects makeup artist Pierre Olivier Persin, who also created a hybrid prosthetic combining Qualley and Moore’s faces for the film’s dramatic moments.

Despite the challenges, Qualley’s experiences with the prosthetics have become part of the narrative surrounding The Substance. Her candid reflections add another layer of intrigue to a movie that’s already capturing attention for its bold exploration of beauty standards and transformation.

What are your thoughts on the extremes actors go through for their roles? Share your opinions in the comments below!

You can watch the whole interview here:

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