San Francisco Frontiers - Chastain converts Oscars voters with televangelist transformation

Chastain, 45, converted Academy voters with a performance that saw her don complex prosthetics, wigs and layers of Tammy Faye Bakker's trademark heavy makeup every day on set in order to embody the late singer-turned-minister and LGBTQ activist.

"In times like this, I think of Tammy and I'm inspired by her radical acts of love," Chastain said as she accepted her award. "I'm inspired by her compassion and I see it as a guiding principle that leads us forward."

In winning the Oscar, Chastain took Hollywood's top female acting prize on her third overall nomination, a decade after her first nod as supporting actress for "The Help," and a lead nomination for "Zero Dark Thirty" the following year.

Chastain bested rival A-list nominees Penelope Cruz ("Parallel Mothers"), Kristen Stewart ("Spencer"), Nicole Kidman ("Being the Ricardos") and Olivia Colman ("The Lost Daughter").

The film follows the life of Tammy Faye, who helped her husband Jim Bakker build a lucrative media empire before he fell into disgrace in the 1980s and was imprisoned in the midst of a sex and financial scandal.

She divorced Bakker and became a prominent and compassionate champion for the LGBTQ community, challenging the homophobia that characterized the religious community at a time when an AIDS diagnosis was viewed by many with prejudice.

- 'Trailblazer' -

Collecting multiple precursor prizes throughout Hollywood's awards season, Chastain has described how it was a long-held dream to play the "trailblazer" televangelist.

Chastain also produced "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," inspired by watching a documentary of the same name in 2012 and going on to spend almost a decade developing the film.

"She wrapped her arms around those who were repeatedly cast aside and she launched herself into decades of LGBTQ love," said Chastain.

To transform herself into the real-life character, Chastain worked with a team of makeup artists and hairstylists -- who also won an Oscar on Sunday -- for as long as seven hours.

"At first I was afraid, like 'how am I going to act through it?' Because it's like plastic on your face," she told Jimmy Fallon in an interview on "The Tonight Show" in January.

"Having (just) my eyes exposed, and my voice and my body, I got to use other things to get me through the mask."

Chastain is known for being guarded about her own personal life, including her 2017 marriage to Italian count and fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, and her two daughters.

- Hollywood comes calling -

Born into a middle-class family in northern California, Chastain began dancing at age nine, and in her teenage years began performing in Shakespeare production all over the Bay Area around San Francisco.

She was spotted in a production of "Romeo & Juliet" and urged to audition for New York's famous Juilliard school of dance, music and drama, where she won a scholarship from one of the school's celebrated alumni, Robin Williams.

She was offered TV work before she left Juilliard, although the move west to Los Angeles had its challenges.

"When I first moved to LA, it was very difficult. All the casting directors didn't know what to do with me, with the way I looked. I'm not blonde with tanned skin and tall and skinny. I looked very different," she once said.

Chastain was singled out for her stage work by Al Pacino, a key early supporter of her talents who later recommended her to Terrence Malick for a breakout role in 2011's "The Tree of Life."

That same year, she starred as a compassionate but socially ostracized Southern housewife in race drama "The Help," earning her first Oscar nomination.

She consolidated her status as Hollywood's next big star the following year as a CIA analyst recruited to track down Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty."

Chastain missed out on the best actress Oscar that year to Jennifer Lawrence.

In subsequent years, she widened her resume with sci-fi flicks "Interstellar" and "The Martian," and horror movies "Crimson Peak and "It: Chapter Two," before finally claiming Oscars glory on Sunday.

Q.Nelson--SFF