Oscars 2022: Jessica Chastain wins Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a televangelist turned LGBTI+ rights activist

Each day of filming, Jessica Chastain had to put on a heavy paraphernalia for this role made up of prostheses, hairpieces and make-up to reproduce the features and the flashy style of Tammy Faye Bakker, gospel singer who later became a pastor and rights activist. LGBTI+.

The actress, just 45 years old, had already been nominated for an Oscar twice, first for The colour of feelings then for Zero Dark Thirty. She won on Sunday March 27 against four other very fashionable stars: Penelope Cruz (Madres Paralelas), Kristen Stewart (spencer), Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) and Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter).

“We are coming out of a difficult period, full of trauma and isolation, and so many people have lost hope and feel alone”said the actress on Sunday, her golden statuette in her hands.

suicide “touched a lot of families, and touched mine”she said, moved, referring in particular to the difficulties encountered by LGBTI + people. “For any of you who are indeed feeling hopeless or lonely, I just want you to know that you are unconditionally loved for your uniqueness.”

The Oscar-winning film traces the life of Tammy Faye, who helped her televangelist husband Jim Bakker build a lucrative media empire before Bakker’s downfall in the 1980s amid sex scandals and hijacking convictions. funds.

She had divorced and had become a fierce advocate for the LGBTI+ community, challenging the pervasive homophobia at the time in religious circles, where many viewed the AIDS epidemic as divine punishment.

“Pioneer”

Already rewarded with several awards in Hollywood for this role before the Oscars, Jessica Chastain explained that she had long dreamed of interpreting this “pioneer”. “She embraced those who were systematically rejected and invested herself for decades in the love of LGBTI + people”did she say.

To transform into Tammy, Jessica Chastain worked closely with a team of Oscar-winning make-up artists and hairstylists who could spend up to seven hours at a stretch to make her up.

“At first I was scared, I was like, ‘How am I going to play through this? “Because it’s like plastic on your face,” the actress said in an interview in January.

Pushed by Al Pacino

Jessica Chastain is known for jealously guarding the details of her private life. Born into a modest family in northern California, the artist began dancing at the age of nine and by adolescence she was playing Shakespeare in theaters around San Francisco.

Even before graduating from the prestigious Juilliard school in New York, he was offered to work for television, but his installation in Hollywood was not without difficulty.

“When I moved to Los Angeles, it was very difficult at first. The casting directors didn’t know what to do with my appearance. I’m not blonde and tan, nor tall and thin. I looked very different”did she say.

Chastain had been noticed for her talent by Al Pacino who had revealed her to the general public in 2011. She obtained her first Oscar nomination for The colour of feelings and consolidates its star status in the process with Zero Dark Thirty where she plays a CIA expert recruited to track down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Then she widens her palette of roles with science fiction like Interstellar and Alone on Marseven horror movies (Crimson Peak, It: Chapter 2) before finally being crowned at the Oscars.