In The Eyes of Tammy Faye, an unrecognizable Jessica Chastain plays Tammy Faye Bakker, the flamboyant televangelist who built an evangelical empire with her husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) until it all came crashing down. “We’re not doing anything wrong?” Tammy Faye says in the trailer above. “Is that a question?” Jim replies, knowing full well that he’s doing something wrong, including committing fraud and a rape accusation. The Eyes of Tammy Faye will cover all that, as well as Tammy Faye’s acceptance of LGBT advocacy. “How sad that we as Christians, who are to be the salt of the earth, and we who are supposed to be able to love everyone, are afraid so badly of an AIDS patient that we will not go up and put our arm around them,” she once said.
Hopefully Baby Billy shows up to sing “Misbehavin’.” Here’s more:
The Eyes of Tammy Faye 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, rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.
Directed by Wet Hot American Summer and Stella icon Michael Showalter, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which also stars Cherry Jones, Fredric Lehne, Louis Cancelmi, Sam Jaeger, Gabriel Olds, Mark Wystrach, and Vincent D’Onofrio, opens on September 17.