The Eyes of Tammy Faye Opens Rome Film Festival 2021

The 16th Rome Film Festival opened with Michael Showalter's 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye,' starring Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker and Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker. The film traces the rise and fall of the evangelical televangelists from the 1980s to their 1994 scandal involving fraud and conspiracy. Chastain, who also produced, said she wanted to tell an authentic love story rather than focus on scandal. She met with the Bakkers' children to ensure accuracy. The Bakkers married in 1961 and built a media empire, founding the PTL Club in 1974. Donations funded homes, buildings, and a Christian theme park that operated until 1989. Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison, later reduced, and released in 1994. He divorced Tammy in 1992 and resumed televangelism with his second wife in 2003. Tammy Faye died of colon cancer in 2007 and became a gay icon. Chastain also discussed her roles in 'Zero Dark Thirty,' 'The Tree of Life,' and the series 'Scenes from a Marriage' during a public conversation at the festival. The festival also featured Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino.