Dennis Quaid Replaced Late Hollywood Legend Ray Liotta In The Substance

If you haven’t seen Coralie Fargeat’s hyper-stylish body horror movie “The Substance,” do yourself a favor and go inject this gorgeous neon gorefest directly into your eyeballs. Our review called it “bloody, brilliant” and “bonkers,” but even if it doesn’t totally work for you for whatever reason, this audacious flick about aging fitness model Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) features some of the best cinematography and performances of the year. Moore is vulnerable and relatable as Elisabeth, who uses an experimental new treatment to split the younger part of herself into a separate person, Sue (Margaret Qualley), really baring it all for audiences in a number of ways. Qualley is also fantastic (as always), a perfect example of energy and youth, mixed with all of the reckless abandon and self-centeredness youth can bring. 

One other performance that’s shockingly great is that of Dennis Quaid, who portrays Elisabeth and Sue’s slimeball boss at the TV network, Harvey. He fires Elisabeth from her fitness show for being too old, hiring Sue as her replacement, and he’s a misogynistic, greasy creep who leers and grins directly at the camera with real menace. The man who just played Ronald Reagan in a biopic almost seems self-aware, playing a version of his own public persona turned up to 11. It’s kind of neat meta-casting but a little unsettling, and we almost had someone much better suited to the role before his tragic passing in 2022: the one and only Ray Liotta. 

Deadline reported that Liotta was set to star in the film in February of 2022, and in an interview with Variety in 2024, Fargeat confirmed that she ended up recasting the role with Quaid. While Quaid is honestly pretty fantastic in the part, Liotta would have been even better. Playing a certain kind of loud-mouthed, sleazy scumbag was right up Liotta’s alley; there’s a reason why the clip of him laughing in “Goodfellas” has become such a popular reaction gif. He’s good at brash and obnoxious, and he would have been absolutely incredible as Harvey. Just imagining him chowing down on seafood while talking a mile-a-minute gives me the creeps, without any of Quaid’s real-life menace peeking through. It’s really a shame that we didn’t get to see Liotta in the role, though at least Fargeat and Quaid managed to make it work.

Thankfully for everyone involved, the performances that matter most in “The Substance” are those of Moore and Qualley, both of whom put in some of the best work of their careers so any other bits of good acting are just icing on the cake. We can always dream about the movie that might have been, just like we can always dream about “Lethal Weapon” starring Bruce Willis or “Collateral” starring Adam Sandler (yes, really), but in the end, we get the versions we get. Until someone figures out how to hop timelines like “Doctor Strange” or “Rick and Morty,” that’s all we’re going to get, and that’s okay.