About

Margaret Qualley Smiling GIF refers to a scene from the 2024 body-horror film The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. The scene shows an almost tearful Qualley (who plays the character Sue in the movie) shrugging her bare shoulders and smiling. The meme came to be used as a reaction GIF and GIF caption format on Twitter / X in October 2024. The GIF is typically used to show how women smile even when they don't really want to, among other jokes about smiling through difficult situations.

Origin

The Substance is a 2024 horror movie directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, which stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid. The film received a limited theater release in September and October 2024.

On October 14th, 2024, the YouTube^[1] channel dogokon. – The Movie Archive posted a scene from the film, where at the 2:37 timestamp, Qualley's character Sue tearfully smiles and shrugs her shoulders after Quaid's character Harvey asks her if everything's ok, telling her to smile when she forcefully says yes.

Also on October 14th, the Twitter^[2] / X account best of margaret qualley (@qualleyfiles) posted a GIF of the aforementioned scene, gathering over 5.4 million views and 22,000 likes in a week.

Spread

On October 14th, 2024, X^[3] user @kenzvanunu quoted the post from @qualleyfiles, writing, "me when my boss asks if I'm ok," gathering over 120,000 likes in a week.

me when my boss asks if im ok https://t.co/7oWKeWBViK

— kenzie xcx 🐦‍⬛ (@kenzvanunu) October 14, 2024

On October 20th, X^[4] user @natonfilm tweeted the meme with the caption, "being a girl who's never been in a relationship before," gathering over 130,000 likes in three days.

Also on October 20th, 2024, X^[5] user @vriesdiary used the format and tweeted, "being a girl who’s average at everything but good at nothing," gathering over 150,000 likes in three days.

Template

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References