Demi Moore reveals she got shingles while filming “The Substance”

Demi Moore reveals that filming her new movie was very “intense” The substance – especially since she had to deal with a health diagnosis during production.

The feud Actress, 61, told in an interview with the LA Times that she got shingles during a break from filming The substancein which she plays the leading role alongside Margaret Qualley.

“To give you an idea of ​​the intensity, my first week of actually having it off and only Margaret working, I got shingles,” Moore recalled to the outlet.

“And then I lost about 20 pounds,” she added.

Shingles is a “painful rash condition” that people can get when the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which causes chickenpox, “reactivates in the body,” according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC said when people get shingles, they can develop a “painful, itchy, or tingling” rash on the “left or right side of the body,” and the risk of shingles increases with age.

Her co-star Qualley also mentioned in the interview that she faced a number of challenges of her own during filming, including “crazy acne” that she struggled with for “a very long time.”

Director Coralie Fargeat also said in the interview that she wanted to shed light on the difficulties in dealing with one's own body and the changes that come with it.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“I recently read a tagline in an article about the film that said, 'Being a woman is body horror,'” Fargeat said. “The film can be scary on many levels, but the first level is about playing with the violence we do to our bodies.”

The substance reflects these themes. In the film, Moore plays Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle, who uses an advertised experimental drug to create a younger version of herself – ultimately her clone Sue, played by Qualley.

The official synopsis of the horror film gives a little taste of how the fictional drug works: “It lets you create a different you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect you. And there is only one rule: you share the time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Simple. Or? If you respect the balance… what could go wrong?”

When chatting with interview In an interview with the magazine “The 40 Years of the …

She further explained that the film tackles the issues in a more personal way. “At its core, it's really about what we do to ourselves, and I loved that it was portrayed in such a physical way – showing this violence through what we do with our minds, how we attack ourselves and distort things,” she said.

The substance will be released in theaters on September 20, 2024.