Product overload. Jessica Chastain had to completely change her appearance to play Tammy Faye Bakker in the upcoming biopic, The Eyes of Tammy Faye. But a the total transformation took a major toll on her complexion.
In an interview about the film, which details the rise and fall of the televangelist and her first husband Jim Bakker, the 44-year-old actress said that spending hours day in and day out in glam hasn’t been great for her skin health.
“I think for sure I’ve done some permanent damage to my skin on this,” she told the Los Angeles Times in a Monday, August 23, interview. “Listen, I eat very pure, and I take very good care of my skin and i stay out of the sun and all that stuff.”
Still, her top-notch skincare routine was no match for the “heavy” makeup. “When you’re wearing it all day, every day — the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out. I finally took it off and I was like, ‘I look 50 years old!’ No, I’m kidding. But it’s fine. It’s for my art.”
And taking it off was quite a process, especially given that Chastain spent hours (and we mean hours) getting the makeup on in the first place.
“The longest was actually 7 1/2 hours. And I got to set and I was so panicky. Started to have hot flashes because it’s so heavy and hot. Was afraid. I was like going on a long-distance flight every day. Because if it takes 7 1/2 hours to put on, it’s going to take at least two hours to get off,” she explained.
Chastain continued: “It was concerning to me. I was worried about my circulation. By the time I got on set that first day that was 7 1/2 hours, I was like, ‘I have no energy left.’ And she’s supposed to show up with so much energy.”
Even with prosthetics, lashes and dark makeup, the star still had to make sure that she wore the makeup — not vice versa.
“I was freaked out. I was like, ‘I don’t know how to act like this.’ People think it’s easier, but it’s not. You have to reach through the makeup — you can’t let the makeup be the performance. She was so emotional, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get emotional with all this stuff all over me,” Chastain explained in the interview.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye will be released on September 17, 2021.
