Yahoo News Jessica Chastain on her transformation for The Eyes of Tammy Faye
To say Jessica Chastain is unrecognisable as televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker might be a bit of a stretch. Beneath the prosthetics and layers make-up, Chastain's inimitable face was visible.
It's an apt metaphor for the way Chastain approached not only the role of Tammy Faye, but all of her roles. "In some sense, like whenever you're playing a character you have to pull from where you come from, because that's how to make something authentic," Chastain told Digital Spy. "Like you see yourself through the prism of what they are, through the light of what they are.
"Tammy Faye was one of the first people to say that she was not a feminist, which – that is very much against me. Tammy absolutely believed that everyone was deserving of being treated equally and respected equally."
It's this duality that Chastain says could create a "misunderstanding". In the scene in which Tammy sits down at a table full of men, Chastain says, "She just knows she has a right to be there and she doesn't [have to] fight through an obstacle.
"And she's got this never-ending optimism, you know, and that's what she approaches herself with." This is quite the contrast to Chastain's self-described "type A" personality – a quality that comes up in the other characters she's played. For Tammy, "I had to stretch a different part of myself. To play her I had to pull back the fighter-Jessica and allow the love to come out."
Part of becoming Tammy Faye meant undergoing extensive prosthetics. In general, this can range from make-up used to age an actor (which was practically a given here, as the film spans 30 years) to the more contentious bone-structure altering prosthetics (and wholly inappropriate fat suit).
For The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Chastain's three-stage work eventually included "a full neck wrap and larger cheeks to convey weight gain" and "'larger cheeks and chin, [and] lip prosthetics to age her. We also did a little [stretch and stipple] work' to give Chastain the age around her eyes." (via Vulture.)
This behind-the-scenes work became part of the continuing debate on where the line is, if it exists at all, when it comes to using prosthetics to physically alter an actor to suit a character. "Well, I hope that the line is constantly moving and being redefined," Chastain says. "We tried many different tests. We tried some without prosthetics. We tried some just my face." Presumably, those test screenings didn't go quite as well.
"If you're going to play a character, use every tool that you have to help you tell their story. And if I had just shown up as Jessica to play Tammy, it's... it feels in some sense easier. Like yeah, sure, that's an easier thing for me to do.
"But then I'm kind of playing myself in every role, and for me when I'm acting, I really like to let go of Jessica – of myself – and give myself over to whoever I'm playing.
"So I think hair, make-up, and costumes and dialect coach... All of those things are very important writing a separate character from who you are."
Tammy Faye was well known for her make-up, which is portrayed in the film as both her armour and a point of vulnerability. This duality seems to underscore so much of who Tammy was, both as a character in the film, and the real person.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye isn't the first time Chastain has told a real person's story. She portrayed skier-turned-poker player Molly Bloom in Molly's Game, for which she met with Bloom to build her character. Tammy Faye passed away in 2007, so Chastain instead turned to those closest to Tammy to help fully create her character.
"I was very fortunate that I had her children to talk to, people who met her and knew her and loved her. I was very fortunate to have hundreds of hours of unused footage from the documentary that I got to study.
"So even the boring stuff – Tammy driving in the car and just talking about nothing – that someone might not find very interesting, for me it was like gold.
"I watched every single interview I could find on Tammy and the reality is in some sense I felt closer to Tammy than I did even Molly Bloom, who's alive and I talked to and I became friendly with because I got to study her in a way that she didn't understand she was being studied by me.
"I had a freedom of observation without being watched. And sometimes when you're playing a character who's still alive, they show you what they want you to see, and you have to try to figure out 'okay, well, what's something underneath this' and with Tammy, I feel like I got there."
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is out in UK cinemas on February 4.
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