Jessica Chastain has recently revealed that Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man helped the two in a unique way while they worked on The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which was released in September of 2021, follows the true story of the rise and fall of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker (Chastain) and her husband Jim (Garfield). The film draws heavy inspiration from the documentary (which is also titled The Eyes of Tammy Faye) which was released back in 2000.
The real Tammy and Jim Bakker were famous for not only hosting their incredibly successful television program (The PTL Club), but also for opening their own Christian theme park called Heritage USA. Followers of the Bakker's church can still attend service here, though it is now called Morningside Church. Reportedly, both Chastain and Garfield would covertly attend service at the church every Sunday while filming, for research on their respective roles.
In a recent interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Chastain revealed that Garfield was able to inadvertently get the two out of an awkward situation during one of the services the two actors attended. According to Chastain, Garfield had recognized one of the church attendees as someone who had appeared in the documentary from 2000. Chastain went on to describe how when the pair introduced themselves to this man, he went silent for a moment before saying only "come with me." Apparently, Chastain thought she and Garfield may have gotten themselves into trouble by coming to the church, stating, "we're going to get busted. We're going to get thrown out of here. I don't know what's happening." Things looked worse when the pair were led in to a room with security guards. However, according to Chastain, the guards conferred for only a moment before directing a single question towards Garfield: "Are you Spider-Man?" After this, Chastain reports that she knew everything was going to be alright. See her full quote below:
"And right in the beginning, Andrew goes, 'I recognize that person from the documentary!' And it was, he was right! There was a man there who was in the documentary, and I said, 'ok, let's go talk to him.' So we go up, Andrew's super shy, and I'm like, 'Hello, my name's Jessica Chastain, this is Andrew Garfield and we're playing, um, Tammy Faye Bakker and Jim Bakker, and I'm wondering if we can talk to you.' And the guy just, like, looks at us, and he's like, 'come with me.' We're like, 'oh, we're in trouble.' So we start walking into, like, behind the stage, and like, there's these dark hallways and we're thinking, 'we're going to get busted. We're going to get thrown out of here. I don't know what's happening.' And he takes us into this room where there's other security guards, and they start whispering to each other. And then all of the sudden he looks at us, and I thought, 'this is it. We're in trouble.' And he looks at Andrew and he goes, 'are you Spider-Man?' And that's when I knew we're in!"
It's clear that both Chastain and Garfield put a tremendous amount of effort into transforming themselves into the Bakkers. Aside from the large amount of research done at the site of Heritage USA (which may have been foiled were it not for a certain famed web-slinger) Chastain also had to transform physically into her character. The process involved quite a bit of make-up which reportedly took Chastain seven and a half hours to apply.
It certainly seems that all of Chastain's hard work has paid off. Since the film's release, the actress has received much critical acclaim for her performance. She has also been nominated for several awards including a Screen Actor's Guild award. With this success, its interesting to wonder whether or not the performances in They Eyes of Tammy Faye would have been as detailed if Garfield hadn't been granted the role of Spider-Man nearly a decade ago.
More: Eyes Of Tammy Faye: Why Jessica Chastain's Makeup Is Essential For The Role
