Margaret Qualley says a combination of intense physical training, alcohol and marijuana helped her navigate the most challenging scene of her career.
The actress daughter of Four Weddings And A Funeral star Andie MacDowell plays provocative TV aerobics instructor Sue in critically acclaimed film The Substance, alongside co-stars Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid.
But one pivotal scene involving a highly sexualised dance class led by a lycra-clad Sue, resulted in Qualley 'crying in the bathroom' before she'd even shot her first take.
'That specific kind of sexuality doesn’t lend itself to me,' the actress, 29, told The Sunday Times, admitting she choreographed her routines in private and, when cameras finally rolled, needed a mixture of tequila and weed to push herself through it.
'I just got wasted first thing in the morning because I was like, I can’t do this in front of everybody,' she added.
Margaret Qualley says a combination of intense physical training, alcohol and marijuana helped her navigate the most challenging scene of her career
The actress daughter of Four Weddings And A Funeral star Andie MacDowell plays provocative TV aerobics instructor Sue in critically acclaimed film The Substance (pictured)
Billed as a 'body horror,' The Substance features Hollywood legend Moore, 61, as an over-the-hill fitness queen who takes a mystery black market drug to create a younger, sexier version of herself - played by Qualley.
But Qualley admits she was initially at loggerheads with director Coralie Fargeat, who also wrote the film's screenplay, over her character's physical presentation.
Personal trainers were drafted in to help the actress attain Sue's athletic physique, but Fargeat - whose 'vision of Sue was Eighties inspired, with butt and boobs, think Jessica Rabbit' - was unhappy with the results.
'So I had to be like, OK, well, I did what you said and you’re not happy, so I guess I’ll take matters into my own hands,' Qualley explained.
Of Sue's well-endowed appearance, she added: 'Unfortunately there is no magic boob potion, so we had to glue those on.
'Coralie found an incredible prosthetic team to endow me with the rack of a lifetime, just not my lifetime.'
The Substance has been met by rave reviews, received a 13-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival.
The role required Moore to be completely naked in a scene where Qualley's character is 'birthed' - which shows the older actress examining her own nude body before Qualley emerges and looks at her own skin in a full-frontal scene.
Qualley stars alongside Hollywood veteran Demi Moore, who plays an over-the-hill fitness queen who takes a mystery black market drug to create a younger, sexier version of herself
Speaking at Cannes Film Festival in May, Moore said the full-frontal nudity scenes in The Substance (pictured) were easier to perform with Qualley because she made her feel 'safe'
The role required Moore to be naked in a scene where Qualley's character is 'birthed'
Speaking at Cannes Film Festival in May, Moore said the full-frontal nudity scenes in The Substance were easier to perform with Qualley because she made her feel 'very safe'.
'I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with,' she said. 'We obviously were quite close — naked — and we also got a lot of levity in those moments at how absurd those certain situations were.
'But ultimately. it's just about really directing your communication and mutual trust.'
The Substance is released across the United Kingdom and the United States on September 20.
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