While Jessica Chastain has delivered many great performances over the past decade, her work in The Eyes of Tammy Faye as Tammy Faye Bakker might be her best yet. While watching director Michael Showalter’s film, I was blown away by Chastain’s transformation into Bakker with the way she used everything at her disposal to vanish into the role. Chastain has previously talked about how she spent many years studying Bakker’s mannerisms and vocal inflections, and it shows. At times when she's wearing the clothing and makeup you might forget it’s not Bakker on screen. If you’re a fan of watching great actors deliver incredible performances, look no further than The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
If you haven’t seen the trailer, The Eyes of Tammy Faye is based on the 2000 documentary of the same name directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and the film is an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield), were televangelists who rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and a theme park. The duo were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity, but it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and a sex scandal tore their marriage apart and toppled their carefully constructed empire. The film also stars Cherry Jones, Gabriel Olds, Fredric Lehne, Chandler Head, and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Shortly after seeing the film I spoke to Andrew Garfield. During the interview, he talked about how he gets ready for a big emotional or dramatic scene, why he is drawn playing people that are defined by their faith or loss of it, how he keeps a performance alive on a film set, and more.
Check out what he had to say in the player above and exactly what we talked about is listed below. The Eyes of Tammy Faye is now playing in theaters.
Andrew Garfield
- He seems drawn to roles to people that are defined by their faith or loss of it. What draws him to these roles?
- How does he get ready for a really emotional scene before filming?
- How he keeps a performance alive.
