Jessica Chastain ‘swinging for the fences’ in film
Actor: Televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker hardest role of career
Jessica Chastain’s whole body was shaking.
She’d never been this nervous on a film set — not with the kind of anxiety that gave her trouble breathing.
What am I so afraid of ? The thought reverberated in her head. She’d played a superhero so powerful she could rearrange the structure of matter. The ringleader of a high-stakes underground Hollywood poker game. A CIA analyst who took down Osama bin Laden.
But this was Tammy Faye Bakker, the infamous televangelist recognized more for her heavy makeup than the fact that her husband, Jim, stole millions from his own parishioners. To play her, Chastain would put on gobs of mascara and lip liner, adopt a thick Minnesotan accent and belt out songs about loving Jesus.
“I was scared the people were going to make fun of me,” the actor recalled of her on-set jitters. “And there’s going to be a lot to make fun of if I fail because it’s so out there. I’m swinging for the fences here.”
But that was the reality Bakker — who died in 2007 after a long bout with cancer — faced every day. Remembering the ridicule Bakker endured — and ultimately ignored — allowed Chastain to quell her panic: “You have to let go of your ego and wanting to look cool. This is connecting you to her.”
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” now playing in theaters, will mark the culmination of Chastain’s near-decade-long journey to bring Bakker’s story to the big screen.
In 2012, while on the
press tour for “Zero Dark Thirty,” she was switching through the TV channels in her hotel room when she stumbled across a documentary on Bakker. Chastain had seen the film — directed by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey in 2000 — before, but on this night she connected with it on a different level.
So she secured the rights to the documentary, which had the same name as the eventual feature film. She had yet to establish her production company, Freckle Films, but still found a home for the project at Fox Searchlight.
This interview with Chastain has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What was your impression of Tammy Faye?
A: I had been fed that she was a terrible human being — a clown and a joke. The media taught me that she
used people and stole their money. I had this judgment against her, and I realized it’s so fascinating how the media can give everyone a collective memory that may not really be the truth. It’s not right. I wanted to do something about it to honor her.
Q: Once you secured the rights to the documentary, did you always envision yourself playing her?
A: Yes, 100%. But also, there’s shades of me in it. I love that Tammy Faye doesn’t write anyone off. I love that she believes everyone is deserving of love without judgment. Even if someone thinks differently than me, I’m always trying to understand where it comes from. I find whenever there’s anger or judgment or prejudice or bias, it’s coming from some sadness. So I connected with her on that.
Q: What did you learn about Tammy Faye’s relationship to makeup?
A: This was a conversation we had, all of us as a group, the studio and everything — up until the final moment: Do we need to explain why she wears so much makeup? And for me, no. It’s nobody’s business. It makes her feel pretty. That’s enough. This is how she wants to present herself in the world. Why do we need to justify it?
Q: What was it like the first time you saw yourself made up as Tammy?
A: The very first test I did was difficult, honestly. I mean, we fixed it. But I was freaked out. I was like, “I don’t know how to act like this.” People think it’s easier, but it’s not. You have to reach through the makeup — you can’t let the makeup be the performance. She was so emotional, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get emotional with all this stuff all over me. Am I going to be able to see people and feel free? I just had to get used to it. So much for me is I have to trick my mind.
Q: I know you spoke to Tammy Faye’s children, Tammy Sue and Jay Bakker. How did they feel about this movie being made?
A: I think in the beginning they were scared. These kids grew up in the public eye. Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker invented religious broadcasting before there was reality television, and Tammy invited the cameras into her home. So on Christmas, you’re there with the kids in their house. So I was concerned for them. Would this be traumatizing? So I reached out to them immediately, and I was told that other projects haven’t reached out to them. They’ve always felt like, “This is our lives, and yet we’re not being included.” So they were very happy. It was a good risk that was taken. Because it’s easier, in some sense, to not reach out. You don’t want to have the call that’s like, “Leave my family alone. Don’t do this.”
Q: What did you ask them about their mom?
A: What perfume did your mom wear? That, to me, is so important — I wanted to know what she smelled like because I never got to meet her. I would say to them, “What was your mom’s favorite color?” And Tammy Sue said to me, “My mom had two favorite colors: pink and leopard.” I asked what kind of music she listened to. She loved Patsy Cline and Ray Charles. I wanted to know sensorial things that weren’t in my research.
Q: Do you believe Tammy was involved in — or knew about — her husband’s crimes?
A: What matters to me is that she was never tried. There was never any evidence that said she knew. What matters to me is that society and the media found her guilty based on what? Based on her mascara?
Q: Do you think this is the most extreme role you’ve ever taken on?
A: Oh, for sure. For sure, for sure, for sure. It’s the hardest. Also, singing. The day I went to do it, I tweeted something like: “I am living off of bourbon and Throat Coat.” Because I was so scared. I actually drank Throat Coat tea with whiskey while I was doing the singing. I’m not hardcore like that! But I was like, there’s no way that I can be this nervous, and that was my get-yathrough-it recipe.