Demi Moore once almost got kicked out of her troubled party girl role in film St. Elmo’s Fire after she reportedly showed up “drunk and high” on set.
The hit film’s co-writer Carl Kurlander opened up about the incident during an episode of the Reality Life with Kate Casey podcast, where he claimed that the actress almost lost her role to Madonna after showing up drunk to a fitting.
“Joel [Schumacher] and Lauren Shuler met with Demi,” Kurlander said, referring to the film’s director and producer.
He recalled that his mentor, Schumacher, told Moore, “Go kill yourself on someone else’s movie.”
But the situation got less tense after Lauren Shuler Donner gave Moore an ultimatum of 10 days to get sober.
“Look, if you can clean yourself up in 10 days you can be in this movie,” Kurlander recalled her saying.
Kurlander claimed that Schumer even had met Madonna and believed she would become a major star.
According to Kurlander, the director “was all ready to offer the part to Madonna” before Moore started attending AA meetings and got a sober companion.
“She clearly had more than just cleaned up,” Kurlander said of the Substance actress.
Eventually Moore played Jules Van Patten, a troubled party girl, alongside stars including Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy.
Moore had been vocal about her addiction and revealed in the 2024 doc Brats that Schumacher accompanied her as a sober companion and supported her during filming.
“I didn’t have anything to really warrant him sticking by me,” she told McCarthy. “They paid to have a sober companion with me 24/7 during the whole shooting.”
She added, “They could have easily just found someone else.”
It is pertinent to mention that Moore sought treatment for addiction in 2012 and has remained sober since then.
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