Demi Moore Recalls Controversy of Her 'Sexy' Pregnant “Vanity Fair” Cover: 'Thank God We've Grown and Evolved'
The actress says she "felt very empowered" posing nude while pregnant on a 1991 cover of Vanity Fair
Demi Moore sees her 1991 Vanity Fair cover as an empowering, cherished personal memory, even if some of the public had a different reaction at the time.
On Sunday, Oct. 13, the actress spoke at the 32nd annual Hamptons International Film Festival, where she was honored with the Career Achievement in Acting Award.
During the career-spanning conversation, moderator Alina Cho asked Moore about the iconic August 1991 magazine cover, on which she posed naked while pregnant with her second daughter, Scout.
Cho, a HIFF advisory board member and contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, recalled the Vanity Fair photoshoot causing "quite an uproar" at the time.
"The thing that really struck me when there was so much back and forth about it, and part of what I felt in just showing up to do the shoot, was an honest expression of how I was feeling at that time," said Moore, 61.
She continued, "I felt very empowered as a woman. I felt sexy."
Related: Demi Moore 'Never Imagined' the 'Degree of Controversy' Her Pregnant Vanity Fair Cover Would Bring
Photographer Annie Leibovitz captured the photos used in the magazine, though the nude maternity shot was originally not intended for editorial purposes. "That was actually done for me at the end of the shoot," said Moore. "We were doing it just so that we had a family [photo]."
On newsstands, the magazine cover was deemed too provocative and, therefore, came with outside packaging covering up the photo.
"They had to put a brown wrapper," said Moore. "There's an interesting thing that existed that, thank God, we've grown and evolved, is that you were celebrated when you find out you're pregnant, and you're celebrated when the baby was born. But in the in-between, you're not supposed to remind anybody that you've ever had sex and that it's a shameful thing."
Moore said there was a "silent agreement about what's acceptable and what's not, in the same way that there's been a certain agreement around women aging and kind of then being pushed to the sidelines in a way that, let's just say up until now, that we've kind of all agreed to because that's just the way it is. But that doesn't make it the truth."
Related: Scout Willis Says Mom Demi Moore Taught Her How to 'Feel Beautiful' on the Inside (Exclusive)
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At the HIFF event, held inside the East Hampton Middle School, one audience member who brought the original Vanity Fair issue passed it up and onto the stage. Moore smiled as she held the copy, careful not to tarnish the decades-old magazine. "I don't want to hurt it, but thank you for passing it up. Make sure you get that back," she said.
The fan who brought the magazine, Sharon Long from Long Island, told PEOPLE afterward that the "unapologetic" magazine cover left an impression on her.
"It was so beautifully done," said Long. "It was sexy and sweet all rolled into one. It felt like she was doing it for herself, not for any other reason or to gain fame, she didn't need that. You knew the strength and vulnerability was coming from within, and that beauty shone from within."
Related: Demi Moore Says There Is 'Great Beauty' in Meeting Ex Bruce Willis Where He Is amid FTD Diagnosis
Elsewhere during the conversation, Moore looked back at her famous roles in movies like Ghost, G.I. Jane and Indecent Proposal, as well as her latest performance in The Substance. On that subject, the star spoke more about aging and the pressure put on women in Hollywood.
Moore spoke to the wisdom her daughter Scout, now 33, shared that resonated with the actress' current perspective of body "acceptance."
"My middle daughter Scout said at one point, 'I want to quit wasting time focusing on all that I'm not when I could be celebrating all that I am,' " recalled Moore, who also shares Rumer, 36, and Tallulah, 30, with ex-husband Bruce Willis.
Moore added that she learned to love and appreciate where she is "in the present moment at any given time," saying, "There are things I found wrong at 20, at 30, at 40, 50, and I can still look [for flaws]. The difference today is my ability to catch it and shift and reframe that my value is who I am, not what I do or how I look."
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