Jessica Chastain On Her Surprising Oscar Nomination For Best Actress: “It Feels Like Things Have Come Full Circle”
deadline.comJessica Chastain has built a résumé of portraying strong-willed women, but playing Tammy Faye Bakker was the first time she felt “exposed.” Believe it or not, she’s been working on bringing The Eyes of Tammy Faye to life since her most recent Best Actress nomination in 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty.“It’s been 10 years since I haven’t acknowledged, and it was around that time I got the rights to Tammy Faye’s story, so it really feels like full circle,” she said after her Oscar nomination this morning.Chastain told me that when she found out she was nominated, she had a bit of a celebration with the other Best Actress nominees.
From the sounds of it on our call, she seemed genuinely in shock.“I FaceTimed with Penelope Cruz, who I love, and we jumped up and down together,” Chastain said. “Then I called Olivia Colman and celebrated with her.
I don’t have Nicole [Kidman] or Kristen (Stewart’s] phone numbers, or I would have called them too. But to be acknowledged by the Academy, especially this year, is shocking.”Oscars Snubs & Surprises: Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ruth Negga & ‘Sing 2’ Rebuffed By Academy VotersTammy Faye, along with husband Jim Bakker, built a multimillion-dollar evangelical empire via The PTL Club, a televangelist program they co-founded in 1974.
In 1978, the couple built Heritage USA, a Christian theme park. Tammy Faye garnered significant publicity when her husband was indicted, convicted and imprisoned on numerous counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, resulting in the dissolution of The PTL Club.
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