Jessica Chastain may have to pass up her red carpet opportunity at the 2022 Oscars to celebrate the hair and makeup team that transformed her into Tammy Faye Bakker.
"The Eye of Tammy Faye" is vying for two Oscars at the Academy Awards on March 27. Chastain, 44, played the lead role and is nominated in the corresponding category, while the hair and makeup team is nominated in the applicable category.
Logistical changes in how the awards show will unfold this year has created a potential scheduling conflict for Chastain.
Makeup and hairstyling is one of eight categories that will be announced an hour before the live telecast starts, the same time at which actors are usually on the red carpet before taking their seats. Meaning, Chastain could be on the red carpet at the time the hair and makeup team for the movie she starred in wins the prestigious honor.
Chastain already settled the debate on whether or not she will attend in an episode of the Next Best Picture podcast that aired Monday.
“I will absolutely be present when the makeup category is being called," she said unequivocally. "And if that means I’m not doing press on the red carpet or ABC or whatever it is, then so be it.”
Chastain said the hair and makeup team is responsible for distinguishing how her character looked in three different decades of life, adding that it called for a significant amount of detailed work. She said she wants to honor that care and labor.
“The most important thing for me is to honor the incredible artisans who work in our industry," she said. "So much attention is on the actors. We’re the face, in some ways, because you go to a movie and you see us. A lot of people don’t understand how, beyond an actor, a performance is (made)."
The film tells the true story of Bakker, who had a humble upbringing in International Falls, Minnesota, before becoming a prominent conservative evangelist spreading the gospel across major news outlets during the '60s and '70s. She was a key Christian leader who supported the LGBTQ community at a time when it was not popular.
Chastain depicts Bakker's rise and fall alongside Andrew Garfield, who plays her husband, Jim Bakker. Chastain told TODAY in September 2021 that watching the documentary and eventually signing up for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" changed how she viewed the person she was portraying.
"My knowledge of Tammy was just what the media had fed me, the sensationalized version, all the drama, not really the true story of who she was. And that, in the documentary, blew me away. It was the reason I had to make the film," Chastain said referring to one scene in particular in which Bakker declares her love and Jesus' love for members of the LGBTQ community in an interview with Steve Pieters, an AIDS patient. It was revolutionary at the time.
Chastain added, "I'm convinced that Steve Pieters and Tammy Faye saved lives with that interview because many in the conservative evangelical world were disowning their children who were coming out to them. And here's Tammy Faye saying we love. That's the way with Jesus."
