Demi Moore Calls Her Fellow Actors ‘My Greatest Teachers’ in Uplifting SAG Awards 2025 Win for The Substance

The 2025 SAG Awards have crowned their best actress: Demi Moore!

The actress won the honor for her work in The Substance at the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony, hosted by Kristen Bell, on Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Shrine Auditorium.

During her speech, Moore reminisced on first receiving her membership to the Screen Actors Guild at 15 years old in 1978 and said earning her membership “changed my life because it gave me meaning, it gave me purpose and it gave me direction.”

“I was a kid on my own who had no blueprint for life and I certainly knew nothing about acting, but I watched, and I listened, and I learned from all of you,” she told the SAG Awards’ audience full of actors. “You have all been my greatest teachers, and I am so so grateful that I have continued over these so many years to be able to try and sometimes succeed and sometimes fail but to be able to keep going, and I could not do that without the support of my incredible team.”

Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Mikey Madison (Anora) were also in the running for SAG’s lead film actress prize this year.

Moore, 62, had a roaring start to awards season. She scored best actress in a comedy or musical film at the 2025 Golden Globes earlier this month for her role as a successful actress who attempts to reverse her aging process in Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror satire flick. Moore is also up for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Substance. 

In The Last Showgirl, Anderson, 57, plays Shelly, a soft-spoken Las Vegas dancer at a crossroads when the hotel that hosts her long-running show announces it will end after decades. She begins to struggle with what her future holds while also attempting to repair her relationship with her daughter, played by Billie Lourd. Anderson also received nominations at the 2024 Gotham Awards and the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, which were held Jan. 5.

Erivo, 38, and her costar Ariana Grande notched recognition for their work as the future witches of Oz — Elphaba and Galinda/Glinda, respectively. The movie is also up for best supporting actor for Jonathan Bailey, 36 and best supporting actress for Grande, 31, as well as best cast and best stunt ensemble. Erivo is also Oscar-nominated for her performance.

In the musical crime drama Emilia Pérez, Gascón, 52, plays Manitas, a Mexican cartel leader who hires a lawyer named Rita (fellow nominee Zoe Saldaña) to help him transition into living as a woman named Emilia Pérez. Things get even more complicated when Pèrez decides years later that she wants to reunite with the family she left behind. Gascón made history as the first out trans woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award.

Madison, 25, leads Anora in the titular role, a sex worker experiencing a whirlwind Cinderella story. The breakthrough star won lead actress at the 78th annual British Academy Film Awards ceremony. During her speech, she gave a powerful shout-out to the sex worker community. The actress has also received nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, Film Independent Spirit Awards, and more.

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See PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, airing on Netflix.