Bakker flick’s Falwell: It’s ‘a more fair look’
They went to hell and back. Michael Showalter’s “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” in theaters Friday and based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, explores the heavenly rise and hellish fall of televangelists and “The PTL Club” hosts Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, played by Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.
“Obviously there were the things on ‘Saturday Night Live’ about it and there was other comedy stuff about it and stuff, but only on the peripheral did I really pay attention to it,” Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays the Rev. Jerry Falwell, told the Daily News of watching the scandal unfold at the time.
As the Baptist pastor and conservative activist, D’Onofrio’s Falwell is the nail in the coffin of the Bakkers’ reputation and extravagant lifestyle when he swooped in after “PTL” went bankrupt.
Though a self-described lifelong “bleeding heart liberal,” the Brooklyn-born “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” star, 62, spent part of his childhood in the South and with “very religious” neighbors, in turn making him well aware of televangelists from a young age.
“I remember being over at their house and there were TV evangelists on their televisions, and I understood that they were preaching. And I understood that they were asking for money and stuff like that. But back then, I wasn’t aware of being a liberal or somebody being on the far right ... they were just friends. ... I was never really privy to anything that would bring up any kind of division. Although obviously there has always been,” said the “Full Metal Jacket” star.
While he generally associated televangelists with “the very far right” — and some who he “considered snake oil salesmen types” — what he knew of the Bakkers never seemed to fall under that umbrella.
Tammy Faye’s acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community is highlighted throughout the film — her status as a gay icon less so — in part when she interviews Steve Pieters, a gay minister, about the way people have treated him since his diagnosis with AIDS.
Of course, anyone who lived through the ’80s or watched Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s documentary, knows the story of the Bakkers — from Tammy Faye’s quirky and unmissable tattooed-on makeup to the couple’s stint as television puppeteers. But Showalter’s film takes a different approach to its “very full and wonderful” predecessor, said D’Onofrio.
The documentary, he said, “went a little bit snarky, like they make fun of them about the puppets thing and all of that. And that is a little goofy but, you know, where I come from, like, entertainers and all kinds of storytellers do goofy stuff in their careers. You know, like that’s what they do, that’s how they start . ... I thought that that was a little bit of a cheap shot.”
The “Men in Black” actor pointed to the people with whom his father had been in community theater, where “there were all kinds of different entertainers.”
While he feels this film lends more heart and humanity to both Tammy Faye and Jim, D’Onofrio points out the documentary could only convey so much with the available footage.
This film, he says, offers audiences “a more fair look at the whole thing,” which he credits largely to the performances of an unrecognizable Chastain as well as Garfield.