Demi Moore isn’t afraid to lift the veil on Hollywood’s sexist mindset, especially having experienced it firsthand on the set of her 1992 film A Few Good Men alongside Tom Cruise.
Reflecting on the role during an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Moore, 61, recalled a studio executive pushing for her character and Tom Cruise to have a sex scene.
Though screenwriter Aaron Sorkin stood up for Moore and denied the request, the executive’s reaction was rather distasteful.
“Well, then why did we hire Demi Moore?” the Emmy-nominated actress recalled the exec’s words.
“I think that it’s how they were conditioned,” Moore said of the incident, adding that it reflected the industry’s then-prevailing mindset that women in films were often expected to serve as love interests.
Sorkin previously addressed the incident in a 2011 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, revealing that the unnamed executive gave him the following note: “If Tom Cruise and Demi Moore aren’t going to sleep with each other, why is Demi Moore a woman?”
“I said the obvious answer: women have purposes other than to sleep with Tom Cruise,” Sorkin told the exec.