Oscars: Margaret Qualley oozes into Best Supporting Actress top 5 for ‘The Substance’
Elisabeth and Sue are “one” in The Substance, so it only makes sense that both of their portrayers, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, would receive equal treatment at the Oscars.
Moore crept into Gold Derby’s Oscar nominations predictions for Best Actress just over a week ago, and she officially fired up that race with a Golden Globe triumph on Jan. 5. She thanked Qualley in her acceptance speech “for being the other half of me that I couldn’t have done without” (watch below). Now it’s Qualley’s time to start thinking of a speech. She just leapt into our Best Supporting Actress Oscar lineup, where her 10/1 odds currently place her in fifth behind Globe winner Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) at 10/3, Ariana Grande (Wicked) at 4/1, Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) at 5/1, and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) at 11/2.
Coralie Fargeat‘s body-horror flick arrived rather late to the Oscar contest, only appearing in Gold Derby’s top 10 for Best Picture in mid-December. It’s also expected to receive bids for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and is forecasted to win Best Makeup & Hairstyling. As more and more people see the film — either in theaters or streaming on Mubi — online passion continues to grow, and it now seemingly has one of the biggest rooting factors of any movie in the derby.
In The Substance, Qualley sinks her teeth into the character of Sue, a younger, hotter, more confident version of Moore’s aging actress Elisabeth Sparkle, who goes to extreme lengths to try to look young again. Before long, Sue starts to mess with Elisabeth’s plans via a “slight misuse” of the titular liquid, leading to unexpected — and eventually grotesque — results. This is a horror film, after all! See Moore and Qualley in action in the trailer:
The next stop on Qualley’s awards journey is the Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday, Jan. 12. There, she faces off against fellow supporting actress nominees Saldaña, Grande, Rossellini, Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson), and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Nickel Boys). The Oscar nominations will then be announced on Friday, Jan. 17.
Qualley is a two-time Emmy nominee for Fosse/Verdon (limited supporting, 2019) and Maid (limited lead, 2022), but this would be her first bid at the Academy Awards. Her other notable film credits include Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019), Poor Things (2023), and Kinds of Kindness (2024). The 30-year-old daughter of actress Andie MacDowell first started acting as a teenager.
Of Gold Derby’s 35 Oscar experts from major media outlets, 14 have Qualley in their personal Best Supporting Actress rankings; additionally, three of our staff editors believe Qualley will score a nomination at the 97th Academy Awards, as well as 13 of our top 24 users (those who did the best predicting last year’s Oscar nominations). You can make your Oscar predictions right now.
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