Demi Moore Had The Perfect Response To A Question About Whether She âShould Have Wonâ The Oscar Over Mikey Madison
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In a night of fairly predictable wins, the biggest surprise of the 2025 Oscars was perhaps when Mikey Madison won the award for Best Actress for her performance in Anora, beating out Demi Moore for The Substance.
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Mikey and Demi were undoubtedly the two front-runners in the Best Actress race, having both won major awards in the lead-up to the Oscars. But, as the big night drew closer, the general sense was that Demi would be the one to take home the Academy Award, marking the culmination of her long and turbulent Hollywood career.
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So, after Mikey emerged triumphant on March 2, becoming one of the youngest Best Actress Oscar winners in history, fans online were divided. Despite all the love for Mikey and Anora, many felt that Demi was perhaps more deserving of the win after giving such a career-defining performance in The Substance â a movie that, ironically, focuses on the pressures of aging in Hollywood.
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Earlier this month, in an interview with Time magazine for its Time100 issue, Demi shared her honest reaction to the loss, admitting that she had a feeling the award would go to Mikey on the night. âI leaned over and whispered to my manager, âI think itâs going to Mikey.â I donât know why I knew, but I did,â she said, adding that she felt âso centered and calmâ when her name wasnât called out. âI didnât feel gutted⊠I just trusted, and am in trust of, whatever is going to unfold.â
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Now, Demi has answers for the people who feel she was snubbed. During a conversation at the Time100 summit in New York on Wednesday, she was asked about the widespread sentiment that she âshould have won the Oscarâ and whether she can see herself returning to the Academy Awards in the future.
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âI think that would be nice. I canât say Iâd be mad at it,â she said jokingly about the prospect of winning an Oscar at some point. âThe question of âShould I have won?â is certainly not the perspective of how I hold it. Because I didnât [win]. And I really do subscribe to this idea that everything in life is happening for me, not to me.â
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âThat doesnât mean there isnât disappointment, pain, or that things go the way I would like. But when I look at it through that lens, it allows me to step back and say, âWhat is this trying to give me?ââ she continued. âAnd in that moment, it was being projected that I would win, and so, of course, thereâs disappointment. I also immediately recognized that there is something that is greater that I am to be in service to â even if I donât know what that is.â
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Despite her complicated feelings, Demi has shown nothing but love for Mikey, whom she said she âhad the pleasure of getting to knowâ during the 2025 awards season. âShe did an incredible performance, and really, itâs an odd thing for there to be a competition anyway,â Demi said.
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The 62-year-old star also admitted that the Oscar win wouldâve been the perfect âcompletionâ to her journey with The Substance, but now feels âthereâs more work to be done. This issue is not complete.â âIâm sorry to everyone who had hopes for me that was also the hopes for themselves, because I did feel a lot of collective disappointment that felt like it was even bigger than me,â she concluded.
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