PEOPLE: World’s Most Beautiful: Of Course It’s Demi! Read Her Candid Interview and See the Stunning Photos

Demi Moore’s Oscar night wasn’t the fairy-tale ending many had predicted for the star, the season’s favorite to win best actress. But she greeted the morning after in peace and pajamas. “I think I was in them all day,” she says, laughing. “I was just so happy to kind of sleep in, knowing I had nowhere to be. It was just a beautiful, easy day.” 

At 62, Moore has earned her resilience, drawing from a life filled with trials and triumphs — from a troubled childhood and marital ups and downs to trailblazing roles and the joy of being a mom to her three daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, whom she shares with ex Bruce Willis.

“Giving birth is one of the only times that you can 100 percent know that pain is bringing you a gift,” she says. “And when you can apply that to other things, you start to see that that is a truth of all things that are difficult.”

With her intense role as an aging star fitness instructor desperate for youth in the horror hit The Substance, Moore showcased her long-underrated acting chops — and her unparalleled ability to shape Hollywood’s narratives around power and beauty. (Remember her naked and pregnant on that 1991 Vanity Fair cover? Or doing one-arm pushups in G.I. Jane?)

The accolades — including her first Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards — have given the single Moore, who’s now filming season 2 of the Paramount+ hit Landman, an emboldened sense of who she has become.

“I have a greater appreciation for all that my body has been through that brought me to now,” she says of aging in Hollywood. “It doesn’t mean that sometimes I look in the mirror and don’t go, ‘Oh God, I look old,’ or ‘Oh, my face is falling’ — I do. But I can accept that that’s where I’m at today, and I know the difference today is that it doesn’t define my value or who I am.”   

So how do you define beauty at this stage in your life?

In a way, beauty just is. You can look at a flower and see its beauty. On a human level, I find it’s authenticity and positivity. Beauty comes out of comfort with being exactly who you are.

What are your thoughts on why The Substance resonated with so many people?

I think there’s an aspect that we all have experienced, which is compare and despair. And it isn’t necessarily just about our outsides. It’s that harsh, self-critical judgment. And everyone who’s in the public eye does face a little more judgment and harsher external criticism. I think the thing that was so relatable is really that violence we can have against ourselves.

You’ve talked about how your mom’s alcoholism was devastating to your relationship. Did that shape the way you wanted to raise your daughters?

For many, many years that was really about not wanting my kids to ever experience certain things that I had. It created a real drive in me to want to look for opportunities to transform and become the best version of myself. One of the beautiful revelations was: How could I expect my children to have compassion for me if I didn’t have compassion for my own mother?

What are you most grateful for?

My family, including my four-legged family, my children and all of the incredible, loving people in my life. I feel really so lucky.

How would you describe your life now?

Peaceful — and free.