Oscars Rewind: A look back at Jessica Chastain’s wild ride to Best Actress for ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’
“The Good Nurse” starring Oscar winners Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne hits Netflix on October 26, six weeks after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Deadline awards expert and reviewer Pete Hammond wrote that Chastain is “terrific” and that the movie is “one of the best films of 2022.” With her chances this year still up in the air, let’s look back at Chastain’s wild ride to Oscar glory last March.
In September of 2021, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” was released nationwide starring Chastain as the flamboyant televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. At that time, Chastain was viewed as a well-respected actress due for Academy recognition. She already had two Oscar nominations under her belt for Best Supporting Actress in 2011’s “The Help” and Best Actress for “Zero Dark Thirty” in 2012.
Chastain lost both bids, one to her “Help” co-star Octavia Spencer and the other to “Silver Linings Playbook”‘s Jennifer Lawrence. Suddenly, almost a decade went by with no recognition at all, despite worthy performances in films like “A Most Violent Year,” “Miss Sloane,” and “Molly’s Game.” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” however, was her showiest to date, so she immediately generated buzz to land her third Oscar nomination. Gold Derby founder Tom O’Neil said in more than one slugfest that from his conversations in Hollywood, Chastain was towards the top of the list of actors the Academy really wanted to give an Oscar. But even then, Kristen Stewart was heavily leading the Gold Derby odds for her portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales in the Pablo Lorrain film “Spencer.”
Chastain had some hurdles to overcome to even land the nomination. Given that the film itself disappointed at the box office and the reviews were lukewarm, many feared her performance could be forgotten by the time the Oscar nominations were announced in early February. However, by the end of the year, when most people saw the other films in contention, Chastain began to look more like a slam dunk to at least get the nomination.
In a non-televised ceremony, Nicole Kidman won the Golden Globe for her portrayal of Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos.” Besting out Chastain and Stewart, as well as Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”) and Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”). It’s not terribly surprising Kidman won with the HFPA given that she had won four times before, and she was playing such a historical icon. Still, her victory made pundits begin to take her more seriously as a threat to challenge Stewart for the Oscar.
SEE ‘The Good Nurse’ surprises at Toronto with ‘bone-chilling’ Eddie Redmayne performance
A major twist came on the morning the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations were announced. Chastain would be joined by Colman, Gaga, Kidman, as well as Jennifer Hudson for her turn as Aretha Franklin in “Respect.” However, the most glaring omission in this category was Stewart. The person who had long been regarded as the front-runner had missed this incredibly important precursor. And making things even more confusing was the fact that all the SAG nominees except for Lady Gaga missed with the BAFTAs. Naturally, many people wondered if Lady Gaga had now solidified front-runner status for being the only actress nominated by all the major precursor groups.
When the morning of the Oscar nominations arrived, Chastain expectedly landed her third nomination after nine years. Rounding out her category were Colman, Kidman, Stewart, and her co-star from “The 355,” Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”). No Lady Gaga! Pundits were basically back to square one in terms of figuring out who would win Best Actress. Many prognosticators initially thought “Being the Ricardos” receiving three acting nominations could be a major sign of strength for Kidman, and that she could definitely win SAG along the way for a very actor-bait performance.
When the SAG Awards took place on February 27th, Kidman went into the ceremony heavily leading Gold Derby’s odds. She had never won a SAG Award for film, and many experts and editors believed this year could finally change that. Jeff Goldblum came out to present the award. After the nominees clips were played, it was time to reveal whether Kidman would lock up this race or not. Goldblum opens up the envelope, “And the actor goes to. . . . .” But then an unexpected name was read, “Jessica Chastain in ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye.’” Chastain was visibly shocked, while the other nominees (including Kidman) looked very pleased for her. She came up to the stage and used her speech to pay tribute to every working actor and emphasized what a trail-blazer Bakker was.
Now that Chastain had won this very important precursor voted on by her peers, despite the film’s so-so reviews and poor box office performance, almost everyone began to talk about the possibility of her winning the Oscar too. And she had a lot going for her. She had the physical transformation to play a real life person, this was her third nomination without a win, and none of her Oscar rivals were in a Best Picture nominee either. She would go on to win the Critics Choice Award two weeks later, while the non-Oscar nominated Joanna Scanlan (“After Love”) won the BAFTA that same day. Awards pundits were starting to come to the conclusion that this might be Chastain’s time.
SEE Jessica Chastain: ‘Doing full nudity’ was less exposing than playing Tammy Faye Bakker
However, not everyone was convinced. In the last few years, the Academy has welcomed many new international voters. Many had doubts that “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” would appeal to that voting bloc given that Bakker’s story is a very American one. Chastain had pulled off a victory with a mainstream group like SAG, but many started to look at other contenders that could potentially upset. In the final few days leading up to the Oscars, many wondered if Cruz, who was in arguably the most acclaimed film of the Best Actress nominees, directed by the legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, would be the one to steal Chastain’s Oscar. That speculation was further fueled by a small handful of anonymous ballots that favored Cruz by a large margin. However, Cruz had the uphill battle of winning for a foreign language film, which has been rare, and after missing out on all the major precursors, it seemed unlikely. Still, the handful of anonymous ballots lead many experts and editors to switch to Cruz in the final days (and hours) of predicting.
When the 94th Academy Awards took place on March 27th at the Dolby Theatre, Chastain arrived on the red carpet in a beautiful bronze and purple Gucci dress. When speaking with Nischelle Turner and Kevin Frazier of “Entertainment Tonight,” she told them, “I’m pretty convinced my name is not going to be called.” Either she was being humble, or she was aware of the last-minute media hype for her former co-star. Towards the end of the show, when everyone was still in shock that Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, reigning Best Actor winner Sir Anthony Hopkins came out onto the stage to present the suspenseful Best Actress award to a rousing standing ovation.
All the nominees could be seen looking cautiously optimistic while their Oscar clips were met with respectable applause. After that, the time had come to reveal the winner of this race. One that had gone through so many changes throughout the season. Hopkins opened the envelope, “And the Oscar goes to. . . . Jessica Chastain, ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye.’” Chastain closed her eyes and calmly mouthed, “Oh my god.” She made her way to the stage to a huge standing ovation, and once again used her acceptance speech to talk about what an inspiration Bakker was to her, but Chastain also touched on many other important issues such as suicide, which she said affected her family, and the LGBTQ+ community, saying, “You are unconditionally loved for the uniqueness that is you.” She then finishes her speech by thanking her husband and children, before exiting the stage with Hopkins by her side.
So how did Chastain win in such a strong lineup of performances? One theory is that the category had three actresses who had won before: Colman, Cruz, and Kidman. The fifth nominee was younger and on her first nomination (Stewart). Given that Chastain was on her third, many Academy members may have felt it was her time. Chastain also had the showiest role of the five, and no one loves showy roles more than the Academy’s acting branch, which makes up the largest voting bloc. Another theory is for all the talk that the increase in international voters might keep her from winning, it’s very likely that vote was pretty split between Cruz, Colman, and Stewart — all of whom played international characters in small arthouse films that appeal to similar voters within the Academy. Kidman was the only nominee who had a similar performance to Chastain’s, but given the extremely polarizing reception to her performance, it’s likely she didn’t steal too many votes.
As the reigning Oscar champ, is it possible for Chastain to return for her recent turn in Netflix’s “The Good Nurse”? She currently sits in 15th place in Gold Derby’s odds, so it seems unlikely. However, even if she doesn’t land a follow-up nomination this year, at least (unlike Best Actor winner Will Smith) she will be invited back to present.
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