Why Can't Demi Moore Just Admit to a Facelift?

A plastic surgeon's POV (and mine)

This story in Hollywood is not a new one. A beloved Hollywood actress whose face has remained eerily unchanged will get asked in an interview, “How do you look so young?”

“Oh, just sunscreen and water!” with an expression frozen in an unnatural grin.

“Oh, I just sleep on a silk pillowcase!” one says.

“I do daily face yoga!” claims another.

My favorite is “Just genetics and I drink green juice everyday.”

The classic Hollywood facelift denial is practically an art form these days.

Can we take a case in point: Demi Moore.

Now, let’s be clear. I absolutely love Demi Moore. If you haven’t read her biography, Demi Moore Inside Out, I can’t recommend it enough. She discusses intimate details of her marriages to Ashton Kutcher and Bruce Willis, eating disorder issues, drinking issues, and so much more. She openly admits and discusses all of the intense pressure on her in Hollywood. It’s very honest. A truly great read.

However, this honesty seems to disappear whenever asked about maintaining her youthful appearance. In a recent interview about The Substance, she is asked by reporter Tracy Smith, “For you personally, today, when you look in the mirror, what do you think?"

Demi answers this,”Uhm, it fluctuates, some days I look and I'm like, Wow. That's pretty good. And some days, I catch myself dissecting, hyper-focusing on, you know, things that I don't like. The difference is, now I can catch myself. I can go, Yeah, I don't like that loose skin. But, you know, it is what it is. So, I'm gonna make the best of what is, as opposed to chasing what isn't."

Umm… am I alone here in how irksome this answer is? Demi is answering this in such a cool girl laissez-faire attitude about facial aging when she has clearly visited at least one (if not more than one) facial surgeon. So she clearly is chasing it. Am I wrong here?

And this is what gets me: with all of the honesty seeping through the pages of her book and her constant talk of how women need to just accept themselves, why can’t she just say, “Hey women everywhere, I got a facelift. I look great! Let me tell you exactly what I did.”

Wouldn’t admitting the work she has had done be the most empowering for her and women everywhere? Rather than putting out into the world the illusion of something completely unattainable?

When Julianne Moore, at age 63, says she has not had surgery, I believe her. The woman is flawless and gorgeous. But I do see the lines on her face. I watch her newest film, The Room Next Door, and I see a slightly sagging jowl and wrinkles in her forehead and around her eyes. She looks natural. I can tell she has not had surgery. And she still looks great. Effortlessly cool and gorgeous. Wrinkles and all.

Surgery isn’t for everyone. And we are all human. Even Julianne Moore and Demi Moore. But when I watch Demi in The Substance and her recent press tours around this new film, her forehead has no lines. She has no creases around her eyes. And importantly, her jawline is taught like a 25 year old. This just isn’t possible.

Some celebs are copping to facelifts these days, as written in this RealSelf article. Jane Fonda, Sonja Morgan, Marc Jacobs, and Kris Jenner are a few that have admitted going under the knife. But usually the elite Hollywood starlets still completely lie about their surgical history.

What is the taboo here? And why aren’t we over it already? Demi credits yoga and clean eating for her eternal youth and super tight jawline. But unless downward dog can hoist your face, there is clearly surgical intervention. I did study yoga in Ubud for a month, it had many great benefits. A tight jawline wasn’t one of them. Women in their 60s simply don’t look like this. Plain and simple.

A Surgeons POV

I reached out to facial plastic surgeon, Dr. Kevin Sadati who operates out of his sought after practice in Newport Beach, California. He had this to say:

“Demi Moore’s strikingly defined jawline at 61 has raised questions about whether such results can be achieved without surgery. As a facial plastic surgeon, specializing in facial rejuvenation, I can confirm that while non-invasive treatments such as fillers, radiofrequency skin tightening, and collagen-stimulating injectables can improve jawline contour to some extent for a 30-40 year old, they are generally insufficient to create such a sculpted and taut appearance a 60 year old.”

I am 47 and I have spent decades doing yoga, drinking green juice, and doing microcurrent, Thermage, Ulthera, you name it, and my jawline is not as tight as Demi Moore at 61.

Dr. Sadati continues to explain, “By the early 50s, natural aging leads to skin laxity, volume loss, and descent of deep soft tissue called SMAS. While Moore has stated she has not undergone surgery, achieving such dramatic results non-surgically would be highly unlikely.”

“A deep plane facelift or a preservation deep plane facelift, which repositions deeper facial structures rather than simply pulling the skin, remains the most effective way to restore youthful jawline definition in patients at this stage. “

“While non-surgical interventions can provide subtle contouring, they cannot replicate the dramatic lifting and definition achieved through a facelift, especially in individuals in their 60s.”

My Own Quest Continues: Understanding When Injectables Are No Longer As Effective

If you read Charlotte’s Book regularly (if you don’t please become a paid subscriber asap!), I have been on a quest to find the right facial surgeon for me.

I have found that my botox is doing less and less, and the fillers I have been getting in my upper temples to lift my jowls just doesn’t seem to be working anymore.

Am I building a botox resistance and a filler resistance?

Once again Dr. Sadati explains it’s not a resistance per say, but you reach a point where it’s just not as effective. This is due more to your skin and less about a resistance. Dr. Sadati explains: