Demi Moore’s Golden Globes acceptance speech was the pep talk we all needed to hear

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When the Hollywood star received her first major award in 45 years, it was a mic-drop moment that went viral. 

While the majority of us were at home last week facing the prospect of returning to work, finishing off the last of the ‘Christmas cheese’ and setting New Year’s resolutions to stay off said-cheese for the foreseeable, Hollywood’s brightest and best were descending on the Golden Globes red carpet in Beverly Hills to kick off yet another glittering awards season. 

Incredibly talented, almost impossibly beautiful and perfectly poised, the A-listers walking the red carpet seem in a different league to us mere mortals. And yet, as proved so eloquently by actress Demi Moore – in an acceptance speech so iconic it immediately went viral – even the biggest stars aren’t immune to those all-too-familiar-feelings of self-doubt. 

While receiving an award for her performance in hit film The Substance, Moore reflected on a crisis of confidence over her 45-year acting career. Despite being one of the world’s most recognisable faces, with a string of big-screen hits that include Ghost, Moore revealed that a producer once branded her a “popcorn actress” – someone capable of commercial success, but unworthy of critical acclaim. “I bought in and I believed that,” Moore said in her standing ovation-worthy speech. “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’d done what I was supposed to do.”

Moore’s experience of internalising the limiting projections of others is something clinical psychologist Sienna Hinton sees frequently in her patients, too. “If we don’t have a good sense of our self-identity, we can often use external opinions to measure our value. We might then believe that we are not good enough or smart enough, simply because another person once said it or another person is better at something,” she explains. “When this takes hold, it can lead to a spiral of negative self-perception because the more we think we’re ‘not good enough’, the more times we notice we are not, and the more we don’t try.” 

The 62-year-old actress was shocked to win the Golden Globe. Image: Getty

Health and community psychologist Dr Marny Lishman agrees. “When we hear negative comments, like we’re ‘not enough’ or we ‘can’t do that’, it plants a seed of doubt in our minds. If we hear this many times, we can internalise them as truths,” says Dr Lishman. “Listening to these self-limiting beliefs can put us out of alignment with who we truly are and put us on a pathway that is not where we want to go.”

Moore used her mic-drop moment to share some sage advice with anyone who’s faced the same struggles. “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.’”

It was the 62-year-old's first major acting award. Image: Getty

And while external pressures are always going to be there, it’s how we choose to react to them that can be life-changing. “Checking in with your unhelpful thoughts regularly and challenging them can be helpful,” advises Dr Lishman. “Ask yourself: ‘Is this my thought or someone else’s?’” 

At 62, Moore’s first major acting award was a defiant blow to her critics, a triumph of tenacity and a reminder that comparison is the thief of joy – and knowing our worth is a superpower.

“Today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness,” Moore concluded, “and of the love that is driving me, and for the gift of doing something I love, and being reminded that I do belong.” Now that’s the energy we could all do with taking into 2025.

Originally published as Demi Moore’s Golden Globes acceptance speech was the pep talk we all needed to hear