Jessica Chastain Thinks She Ruined Her Skin For 'The Eyes Of Tammy Faye' Role
By Kay on August 25, 2021 at 12:15 PM EDT
Jessica Chastain is basically unrecognizable in her role-playing the late televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. While the film covers the scandals in the 80s that surrounded the god-fearing woman and her husband Jim Bakker played by Andrew Garfield. The real tragedy is the toll that the heavy makeup Bakker was known for is taking on Chastain’s skin. The 44-year-old shared that her skin just doesn’t feel the same. "I think for sure I've done some permanent damage to my skin on this," sharing that she spent extensive time in the makeup chair to transform into the scandalized Bakker.
View this post on Instagram
‘It's Heavy’
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actress claimed that she prized herself on how well she has taken care of her skin. “I eat very pure and I take very good care of my skin and I stay out of the sun and all that stuff,” unfortunately, her job is acting and that sometimes requires some extra effort but she didn’t expect it to be this bad. “It's heavy. And when you're wearing it all day every day -- the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out.” Chastain jokingly claimed that by the time she took the makeup off she looked severely aged. “I finally took it off and I was like, 'I look 50 years old!'” accusing the makeup of aging her by 6 years.
View this post on Instagram
It Was Challenging
The Molly’s Game actress shared that the makeup created an “unexpected challenge” for her "I was freaked out," and would often tell herself that she couldn’t “act like this”. She likened it to working using heavy prosthetics often found in science-fiction films. However, she ultimately tapped into her craft and reframed her train of thought. "You have to reach through the makeup," she said. "You can't let the makeup be the performance."
8 Hours A Day
The actress shared she often spent upwards of 8 hours a day in the makeup chair before several hours of filming. And while the makeup was on, things got even harder. “People think it's easier, but it's not,” she said of having to speak up and project her voice while in the heavy makeup. She notes that usually when she is acting, she utilizes her whole body including “subtle movements” of the face and body and the makeup hindered her from using those tools to their fullest.
‘The Eyes Of Tammy Faye’
View this post on Instagram
Fans are eagerly awaiting the release of The Eyes Of Tammy Faye that also stars Vincent D'Onofrio and Cherry Jones. It’s based on the 2000 documentary of the same name and details the dramatic collapse of the Bakker’s empire that included a multimillion-dollar TV network, and a Christian version of Disneyland. The couple was also accused of fraud but only Jim was indicted on the fraud charges as well as being accused of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old church member, and of course, we cannot forget Tammy’s dependency on pills that she famously admitted to on live TV. Who else can’t wait to see Chastain grin and bare all that makeup while indulging in the shocking true story?
View this post on Instagram