Demi Moore is looking back at the time she made A Few Good Men and how her pregnancy caused a little discomfort for her co-star, Tom Cruise.
Speaking at the New Yorker Festival on Saturday, the 62-year-old actress revealed she was nearly eight months pregnant with her daughter Scout when she first ran lines with Cruise and director Rob Reiner before filming began on the 1992 courtroom drama.
“I think Tom was quite embarrassed,” Moore shared, according to PEOPLE.
“I actually felt OK about it. I was moving around, though, right? But I could tell he felt that it was a bit awkward.”
Moore, who played Navy lawyer Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway in the film, said she believed Cruise’s reaction came from the fact that very few actresses at the time were openly having children while maintaining their careers.
“It’s one of the many things, for me, that I just felt didn’t make sense,” she said. “And so I challenged that to say, you know, ‘Why not? Why can’t you have both?’”
Still, Moore admitted she put a lot of pressure on herself to prove it was possible to balance motherhood and a demanding film role. She recalled being extra strict about her fitness and getting back into shape even before giving birth.
“I was going to be in a military uniform, and probably overly anticipated and started working out and trying to get in shape even before she was born,” Moore explained.
She went on to describe her intense activity level in those final days of pregnancy.
“I did a two-and-a-half-hour hike the day my water broke. I did a 24-mile bike ride, and then was dancing at a reggae club — hence why she came two-and-a-half weeks early.”
Moore shares three daughters, Rumer, 37, Scout, 34, and Tallulah, 31, with ex-husband Bruce Willis.
Despite the challenges, her story stands as a reminder of her determination to defy Hollywood’s expectations for women at the time.
