Jessica Chastain portrays Tammy Faye Bakker in the first trailer for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, an upcoming film that follows “the extraordinary rise, fall, and redemption” of the legendary evangelist.
The biopic charts how Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) rose from a bible school married couple to building the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, until their religious empire’s ultimate downfall due to fraud charges and Jim Bakker’s tabloid scandal involving rape accusations from a church secretary.
After their megachurch was shut down and the Bakkers divorced, Tammy Faye — known for her eccentric outfits and makeup — would later become an unlikely ally to the LGBTQ community during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Tammy Faye died in 2007 following an 11-year battle with colon cancer.
In addition to Chastain and Garfield, The Eyes of Tammy Faye also stars Cherry Jones (as Tammy Faye’s mother) and Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Jerry Falwell. The film was written by Abe Sylvia and directed by Search Party and The State vet Michael Showalter. The Eyes of Tammy Faye — which shares its title with a 2000 documentary about Bakker narrated by RuPaul — opens in theaters on September 17th.