-Our first guest is an Oscar-nominated actress
who produces and stars in the film
"The Eyes of Tammy Faye,"
with is available right now on HBO Max.
Please welcome Jessica Chastain!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah! Oh!
-Hi, honey. -It is so great to see you.
It is so great to see you. -Good to see you.
-Thank you so much for coming back on the show.
This looks interesting.
Can you tell everyone where you're Zooming from?
-I am Zooming from the makeup trailer
from the George Jones and Tammy Wynette
mini series that I'm shooting. -Wow.
-[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah.
-How's that going? -It's going, man.
I mean, Michael Shannon is playing George Jones.
I know he loves you.
-I love Michael Shannon! -Yes.
You guys are ridiculous together.
-He's the greatest.
-And we're doing a bunch of songs.
You know, we're doing like 30 songs together.
And it's pretty intense.
But I'm happy to take a break to talk to you.
-I'm so happy.
I know -- Did you record with --
You just recorded, like, with a major producer, right?
-A major producer.
I was just in Nashville with T Bone Burnett.
And -- [ Applause ]
Yeah. -Not too shabby.
Not too shabby right there.
How did you like Nashville?
-Well, I didn't really see a lot of Nashville.
I was mostly in the recording studio, which, actually,
it comes right up against the cemetery
that George Jones and Tammy have been laid to rest at.
So when we'd have breaks, Mike and I
would walk through and visit them.
I know, and then we drank a lot of bourbon.
A lot of bourbon to get over the nerves.
-Yeah. -And sang with T Bone.
-That's amazing! It's so -- I find --
I love that you're doing more musical projects.
Because I know where you live right now is very famous for --
Some great music was made in your building.
-Yes, I live in the apartment that Leonard Bernstein lived in
when he wrote "West Side Story."
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's kind of, like, insane.
-Not too shabby. -Not too shabby.
-But, also, I think another cool weird thing about where you live
is that you spent a lot of time
around that building when you were a kid,
not even knowing that you would eventually
live there, move there.
-Yeah, so, when I went to college,
my grandmother helped me get to New York,
and, you know, she would come and visit me and stuff.
And on the weekends, we would go to this diner
and get baked ziti, and it was such a big treat for me.
And she would send me money for it.
And literally, it's, like, across the street
from the restaurant my grandma and I would go to.
-Come on. -It was really sweet.
You're making me homesick, Jimmy!
-[ Laughs ] We've got to go next time when you come back.
Speaking of growing up, we have something
kind of in common that I wanted to ask you about.
At one point, we both got perms.
-[ Laughter ] -Yep.
-I did it, yeah, and immediately regretted it.
But what was your -- what was your story?
-I was --
I mean, I was an awkward redheaded kid,
so my patron saint was Annie.
And I wanted to look like her so bad.
So I cut my hair really short and got a perm.
And I remember, after it happened --
It was, like, at the mall, you know,
and those chemicals, the smells.
I looked at my mom, and she was just horrified!
Like, "We made a huge mistake!"
And, man, I thought I looked great.
I lived for that perm.
-Really? How long did you rock the perm?
-I -- I mean, I rocked it until it grew out.
I'm sure it's like -- My hair was kind of, like, straight
as it was growing out
with, like, the poodle, like, fluff at the bottom.
-I went to a mall with my friends and -- in college.
And, you know, you don't have any money in college.
So I went -- And so a hair cut is a big deal.
So, I got my hair cut, and the girl cutting my hair,
she was like, "You have such straight hair.
Such straight hair." And I go, "Yeah.
A lot of cow licks. What are you gonna do?"
She was like, "You should get a body wave."
And I go, "What is that? Like a perm?"
She's like, "No, no, no.
It's not a perm. It's a body wave.
Gives you a little wave, a little action to your hair."
I go, "Well, there you go.
You got to have goals or wishes or dreams."
She goes, "Actually, I'm going to school.
I could give you a body wave for free."
And all I heard was "free."
And when you're in college, you're like, "Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do a body wave right now. Let's do it."
So cut to -- I'm under the dryer in the window
reading "Red Book," and my friends walk by.
They're like, "What are you doing?!"
I go, "I'm getting a body wave, man."
What are you talking about?"
[ Laughter ]
And they pulled the hair dryer off.
And I was like, "Oh, my gosh."
Dude, it was -- it was crazy. And you can't just wash it out.
-Can I just ask you -- 'cause this all sounds
like a big ploy to get a girl's number.
[ Laughter ]
Did you get her number after she permed your hair?
-No! I wasn't that -- What?!
Who would ever want to date me with this hair?!
It was like a Play-Doh helmet thing.
It was so weird.
It looked so weird on me. It was odd.
And I remember going home on Christmas break to see my mom.
And my mom opened the door, and she slammed the door
after she saw it. -No.
-Slammed the door and was like, "What is wrong with you?
What are you doing?" I'm like, "I don't know."
-The face. -I kind of looked like Kramer
or something. That's the way --
It was kind of -- -Isn't the expression
"the face and the hair only a mother could love"?
-[ Laughs ] Yeah, exactly.
-You proved it wrong. -Yeah. I proved it all wrong.
You were phenomenal in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye."
Congrats on all the nominations you're getting.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You didn't --
You don't look like you. You don't sound like you.
We had Andrew Garfield on the show a couple months ago,
and he played Jim Bakker.
And he told me that you guys would go
to church every Sunday to kind of research this.
The church that they started, right?
-Yeah, so, every Sunday,
pick up the Starbucks and pick up Andrew,
and we'd drive to kind of --
It's where Heritage USA was,
which is now I think MorningStar Church.
And we were like, "Okay, we're just gonna go and we're gonna,
you know, be quiet and kind of slip into the background,
and hopefully no one will notice us."
We kinda felt like we were sneaking in a little bit.
We just wanted to have the experience of being there.
And we're there, and right in the beginning, Andrew goes,
"I recognize that person from the documentary!"
And he was right.
There was a man there who was in the documentary.
And I said, "Okay. Let's go talk to him."
So we go up and we're super shy, and I'm like, "Hello.
My name is Jessica Chastain. This is Andrew Garfield.
And we're playing Tammy Faye Bakker and Jim Bakker.
And I'm wondering if we can talk to you."
And the guy just like looks at us.
And he's like, "Come with me."
And we're like, "Oh, we're in trouble."
So we start walking behind the stage
and, like, these dark hallways.
And we're thinking, "We're gonna get busted.
We're gonna get thrown out of here."
I don't know what's happening." And he takes us into this room
where there's other security guards.
And they start whispering to each other.
And then all of a sudden, he looks at us.
I thought, "This is it. We're in trouble."
He looks at Andrew and he goes, "Are you Spider-Man?"
[ Laughter ]
And that's when I knew. We're in!
-Yes! "Am I Spid-- Yes, I happen to be Spider-Man."
Absolutely. -Yes!
-I want to talk to you more about "The Eyes of Tammy Faye."
'Cause I want to know -- The singing voice is amazing.
And the puppetry that you did.
I want to get into all of the stuff.
More with Jessica Chastain after the break. Stick around.