Demi Moore looks back on the attention she got from her Charlie’s Angels 2 Bikini scene.

In conversation with Michelle Yeoh for interview In an article published by the magazine on Tuesday, the actress said she felt there was no place for her in the industry given the “intensified” discussions about her appearance.

Moore was 40 years old when she made the sequel to Charlie’s Angels and recalled how she struggled with her identity in the face of the attention she received for the bikini scene. Moore is now 61.

“I had Charlie’s Angelsand there was a lot of talk about that bikini scene, and it was all very exaggerated, a lot of talk about my appearance. And then I realized there seemed to be no place for me. I didn’t feel like I didn’t belong. It was more like I felt like I’m not 20, I’m not 30, but I wasn’t what they perceived as a mother yet,” Moore explained.

When Yeoh added the potentially looming question, “Where do I fit in?” Moore agreed.

“Yeah, where do I fit in? It was a time that didn’t feel dead, it felt flat,” she said.

Yeoh chimed in, adding: “Hollywood is cruel to women that age. You can’t find scripts or characters that appeal to you anymore. You’re either the mother or you’re old enough to not be sexy in her eyes. It’s like a 45-year-old, a 50-year-old or a 60-year-old can’t be sexy anymore. But that whole perception is changing a lot right now because people like you and I aren’t sitting back and taking it.”

“No. And I don’t know if I’ve ever done that when I’ve come across something that I don’t understand is a limitation,” Moore said.

Moore also praised Yeoh for her Oscar acceptance speech for Everything everywhere at once for the reminder “that we can decide for ourselves where we want to go and who we are.”

Moore added: “We don’t have to fight it, we just have to believe that something different is possible. For me, the exciting thing is that in the film I represent an ideal from the past and not my present.”

Moore plays the lead role in Coralie Fargeat’s horror film The substancewhich received a standing ovation for over nine minutes at the Cannes Film Festival. In the film, Moore plays an acclaimed actress who becomes the celebrity host of a daytime exercise program and takes an experimental drug that supposedly creates a younger, better version of herself. Margaret Qualley plays the younger counterpart to Moore’s character. The film contains explicit scenes, including a naked, bloody fight between Moore and Qualley.

During the film’s press conference at the festival, Moore said the role “pushed her out of my comfort zone” and the explicit images were “necessary to tell this story.” Moore described the film as “a skewering of the male perspective of the ideal woman.”

Moore told Yeoh that after reading the script, she felt that “this is a unique way of dealing with the issue of aging, societal conditioning and, as I see it, the pressures of the male-idealized woman that we as women have fallen victim to.”

She explained: “At its core, it’s really about what we do to ourselves, and I loved that it was portrayed in such a physical way – it shows that violence is related to what we do with our minds, how we attack ourselves and distort things. There’s great power in knowing that what we do to ourselves is a choice and we can make a different choice. And for those who aren’t looking for such a profound message, it’s just entertaining.”