Demi Moore's Winning Words

The Golden Globes were handed out tonight, and the big winner was actress Demi Moore for The Substance, a horror film where a fading Hollywood star turns to a black market drug to look younger but results in some scary side effects.

I haven't seen the film, but began watching her in 1985 when St Elmo's Fire came out. The ensemble film is about a coming of age story, young people who just graduated from college in their early 20s trying to figure out their lives and realising it's not straight forward -- we all make mistakes, but it takes courage to keep going.

Moore with McCarthy in St Elmo's Fire in 1985

She played the character Jules who gives the impression she's doing well in her career, but flames out. Jules is fired from her job, is behind on her credit card payments and her possessions seized, and tries to kill herself by freezing to death.

But her friend Billy manages to persuade her to let him into her cold apartment and he tells her they're all in the same boat, trying to make sense of their lives.

Fast forward almost 40 years later, and Moore goes on stage to receive her Golden Globe. She admits she's shocked by the honour, and then gives an eloquent speech about insecurity and having the confidence to rise above it:

"I've been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first time I've ever won anything as an actor. And I'm just so humbled and so grateful.

Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a 'popcorn actress' and, at that time, I made that mean that this [award] wasn't something that I was allowed to have. That I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn't be acknowledged, and I bought in and I believed that.

Moore glowing on the red carpet

And that corroded me over time, to the point where I thought, a few years ago, that maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete. Maybe I would -- I'd done what I was supposed to do.

And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance. And the universe told me that you're not done. And I am so grateful to [director] Coralie [Fargeat] for trusting me to step in and play this woman. Margaret [Qualley], for being the other half of me that I couldn't have done without, for looking out for me. To the people who've been with me for over 30 years... all of the people who stood by me, especially the people who've believed in me when I haven't believed in myself.

And I'll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting is: In those moments when we don't think we're smart enough or pretty enough, or skinny enough or successful enough, or basically just not enough. I had a woman say to me, 'Just know, you will never be enough. But you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.'

And so today I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong. Thank you so much."