Blue eye shadow and all, Jessica Chastain took home the best actress Academy Award for her role as a famed TV televangelist.
Chastain played Tammy Faye Bakker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” an intimate look at the rise and fall of televangelist and former wife of Jim Bakker.
Dressed in a dazzling sequined gown, she said in her speech: “So many people out there feel hopelessness and they feel alone and suicide is a leading of cause of death in the U.S. and it’s touched many families, it’s touched mine. And especially members of the LGBTQ community who oftentimes feel out of place with their peers. We’re faced with discriminatory and bigoted legislation that is sweeping our country with the only goal of further dividing us. There is violence and hate crime being perpetuated on innocent civilians all over the world. And in times like this, I think of Tammy and am inspired by her radical acts of love.”
She beat out Kristen Stewart in “Spencer,” about the life of Princess Diana, Nicole Kidman, who played Lucille Ball in “Being the Ricardos,” Olivia Colman in emotional drama “The Lost Daughter” and Penelope Cruz in “Parallel Mothers.”
Tammy Faye Bakker died in 2007.
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