I'M PRESENT TO WHAT UNFOLDS'

Demi Moore on seizing the moment as she returns bigger, badder and better than ever

-  GILL PRINGLE

When Demi Moore made her triumphant return to the big league last year in the horror film The Substance, Hollywood took note. More specifically, Taylor Sheridan, creator of the Yellowstone franchise, was paying attention and he immediately expanded her small supporting role for the second series of his Texas oil drama, Landman.

Seizing upon Demi’s reemergence into the cultural zeitgeist, he went so far as to kill off her screen husband, Monty (Jon Hamm), so that Demi’s character, Cami Miller, could assume control of his Texan oil corporation.

In one spine-tingling moment, we watch Cami take to the stage to address a roomful of rival oil billionaires — who are all male and have already written her off. Referring to herself as a “hunter”, she issues a stern warning: “Underestimating me is how I buy you out.”

What makes this so powerful is the parallel with the 63-year-old star’s own return to centre stage: bigger, badder and better.

“Cami is facing a challenge that I’m grateful to say I have not experienced, which is life after the loss of a partner, of a relationship that is really the foundation of her entire existence,” Demi reflects. “Where I connect with Cami is on the idea of feeling, at times, that I’ve been underestimated, and I think she is underestimated.”