When you’re thinking of Demi Moore scenes from Ghost, A Few Good men, Indecent Proposal come to mind. If you’re a man, maybe the lascivious dance from Striptease or the forceful seduction ritual from Disclosure.
Your instinct is telling you: That’s a strong, determined woman. Even the pictures from the commercials of the products she’s been promoting or the photo sessions from the magazines all over the world show her as a determined woman with a powerful firmness in her eyes.
But the perspective changes when Demi Moore is in front of. You can feel her shyness. You can find the way she covers her chest when she speaks.
At the end of August, Oriflame launched in Stockholm the most luxurious line of products celebrating 45 years on the market, in collaboration with the American actress: More by Demi. As part of the promoting campaign, Demi Moore was present in front of 100 journalists and more than 5000 people at the Gold conference – the anniversary of the company. And everybody could remark her timidity.
“You’d be surprised to discover how nervous I can be when speaking in front of so many people”, she admitted with her unmistakable voice, nasal, vocals pushing the air through the nose as a race horse.
She’s practical, wears her nails short, in a dark shade nail wear matching her black dress with white and red stripes that fits her envied body. Though, her shoes are golden with high, slim heels and on her ankle you can see a small tattoo.
I was thinking Demi Moore has a practical side that fits so well the activism she’s been doing lately, producing a miniseries on abortions for HBO and creating a foundation that fights sexual slavery, but what amazed me was her honesty when it comes technology.
“I’m more interested in meeting people directly. With so much technology we tend to come apart one from the other. That’s why I like the Oriflame concept so much: when you love something, you want to share it directly, through human connection.”
These words come from someone who’s using technology with grace and perfection, in a way that speaks rather about taking control than about informing: Demi Moore has over 2 million fans on Facebook and 5,5 million followers on Twitter and at the beginning of 2012 she launched, together with her friend Amanda De Cadenet a show with interviews which they mainly promote through a web platform: theconversation.tv
“The best thing when you’re coming from nothing is that you have nothing to lose. When we think of people we name courageous, or fear free, or risk takers it doesn’t mean they don’t feel fear anymore, it means they took the fear and transformed it in something they want it to be”, Demi Moore explained looking back at the timidity she felt at the beginning of her career.
At 17 she dropped high school for a modeling career. A year later she married musician Freddy Moore, and when only 18 she had already a small part in a movie.
“When I was fifteen I wanted to be an actress. It was my dream, but it was not only about acting. It was then when I met a beautiful actress that was very confident of herself (Demi Moore was living in the same building with Nastassja Kinski who inspired her) and I wanted to have her confidence. I thought confidence would come with acting; I wanted it as much as I wanted to be part of a community.”
Few years from her big screen debut she had become the best paid actress in the world – 12, 5 millions of dollars for her role in Striptease –, and one of the most wanted stars.
“It’s impossible to go beyond where you are and take control if you don’t get out of your comfort zone, and like everybody else I had to go out of it to be a better person. I am able to stay here in front of so many people because I conquered one more element of my fear”.
Of course you know these things in theory, but you never think a woman like Demi Moore, who’s both Oscar and Golden Globe nominated, who’s hunted by paparazzi and whose life means for many people the sheer embodiment of success, can be this shy. I had seen this type of shyness at many actors. The explanation lies, I’ve been told, in that when they’re filming, they do things easily because they’re trained, they had rehearsed so that the words and gestures of a character become their own. But when taken out of their medium they feel vulnerable. At some level, this happens to us, ordinary people. When taken out of our comfort zone we become fragile.
This is why I think what Demi Moore accomplished is so fit for the concept of the Oriflame campaign. More by Demi means taking life moments and transforming them in fairy tales: you can be both Cinderella and Snow White.
“Sometimes you can do extraordinary, inspiring things just to be in a story, other times it’s OK to play with the elements in your life just to get where you want to. The truth in fairy tales is always adversity, yet there is always magic and there’s always a reward for overcoming. I think this is what More is about.”
The truth is that however big we are, however successful, we’re all ordinary people at home. And however glamorous, strong and invincible the stars seem to us happens also because we always see them as heroes in a story, with all that involves, from script to costumes and make-up.
We can also cheat a little. With the right make up, with a good perfume, with accessories that bring out our personality. It’s the same thing the stars we’re looking up to are doing.
The most beautiful thing Demi Moore said?
“It is said you believe when you see it, but the truth is you’ll see it when you believe… because it is our belief that comes first and the results second. You have to believe to see it.”
More by Demi, the new Oriflame line consists of make-up kit, shower gel, body lotion, perfume, a bag, a necklace and earrings. They’re available in the October Oriflame catalogue.
The concept: Everything is possible. You can be anything you desire in your imagination. Fantasize on what you want to be: more glamorous, happier, it’s just more.
sept 2012.
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