Demi Moore is a legendary actor who certainly needs no introduction. Over the years, she has been in a string of awesome films, and the success of those movies helped transform her into a household name. Arguably, though, it was one film more than any other that served to turbocharge her career.
That movie was, of course, St. Elmo’s Fire. Moore’s great performance helped solidify her as an icon of the ‘80s and beyond; because of this, we expected her to look back with fondness on a role that made her so famous. However, Moore has trouble watching one scene because she finds it downright “cingeworthy.”
Just what was the scene in question? How did this film define Demi Moore’s career, and what did the director say that completely changed how we watch this film? Keep reading to find out!
An amazing career for an amazing actor
All this talk about Demi Moore may have you wanting to go down memory lane and watch a film (or two, or three) of hers. Fortunately, when it comes to cinema that shows off the full range of her acting talents, you have plenty of movies to choose from.
For example, Indecent Proposal was so smoking hot and so (ahem) “indecent” that it became a pop culture touchstone. In G.I. Jane, Moore gave us a feminist icon who never backed down. That served as ample experience to help make her appearance in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle that much more convincing.
In short, she’s had an absolutely insane career. But that might not have ever happened if not for the success of St. Elmo’s Fire.
A film that defined Demi Moore’s career
Haven’t watched St. Elmo’s Fire, or maybe it’s been a while? Let’s get you back up to speed: broadly speaking, this is a movie that follows a tight-knit group of friends as they attempt to find their own answers to the scariest question young people have ever heard: “what are you going to do when you grow up?”
Accordingly, the movie is about young people who have jumped through all the hoops parents and society have laid out for them and must now navigate an adult world where they have to make all the hard decisions for themselves. As for Demi Moore, she plays Jules, a young woman who tries to kill herself in the most dramatic way. It’s an intense scene that helped define Moore’s career, but to hear her tell it, this may be the most cringeworthy acting she has ever put onscreen!
The so-called “cringeworthy” scene
To this day, fans still eagerly discuss the St. Elmo’s Fire scene in which Demi Moore’s character tries to freeze to death inside her own apartment. It’s certainly a striking scene: the character is surrounded by open windows on a freezing winter night, and we witness a character who has been pushed to the absolute mention and emotional breaking point.
However, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Moore called this famous scene “cringeworthy.” In that same interview, she also implicitly claimed that the movie doesn’t hold up very well, saying that if she had “seen the movie recently,” she “would find many more” scenes that make her cringe.
The director has a different take
Demi Moore minced no words when discussing how cringe she thought her suicide scene was and, by extension, how cringe she felt the entire movie was. But St. Elmo’s Fire director Joel Schumacher has a different take on the scene than she does, and his take may completely transform how you view this famous movie moment.
According to Schumacher, the scene (which, again, involves a young woman assuming she could easily freeze to death in a cushy apartment) was meant to be absurd. Furthermore, this was meant less to be an earnest suicide attempt and more as a character-defining moment. In short, the fact that she really thought she could die and did so in such an improbable fashion is meant to showcase what a drama queen she is.
The cultural importance of St. Elmo’s Fire
If, like Demi Moore, you haven’t seen St. Elmo’s Fire in a long time, or (gasp!) you’ve never seen it at all, you probably have a major question right now. Aside from Moore’s own great performance, what is it that makes this movie so important?
For one thing, the film has now become an invaluable time capsule, showing us what ‘80s fashion, culture, music, and more were like for young people during a very specific point in history. But even when the film was new, it became famous for popularizing Moore as a member of the so-called “Brat Pack,” which was a term used to loosely group the popular young actors of the ‘80s together.
Young people back then couldn’t help but see themselves in these characters, and watching the movie now is a wonderful way to transport back to a simpler, happier time. It might be cringe to Demi Moore, but this film will always be a hit in our eyes!