Bringing that old razzle dazzle back to the red carpet, Jessica Chastain has arrived at the 94th Academy Awards in a sparkling Gucci gown in the colour of royalty like the queen she is. It’s a little bit Norma Desmond, a little Monroe and just the right amount of vampish glamour. Pairing the gold and purple ombre dress with matching shade jewellery and an elegant ponytail hair-do, the 45-year-old actress has already bagged one of the best dressed on the night in this writer’s humble opinion.
Chastain is in the running for Best Actress for her turn as infamous Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Messner in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The film documents Messner’s early years building the ministry with her husband, Jim Bakker, their increasingly lavish lifestyles but also her advocacy for the LGBT+ community and those suffering from HIV – something that was rare from America’s conservative Christian faiths.
It also marks the second time that Chastain has been nominated for an Academy Award. Her first was her breakout role in Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 hit Zero Dark Thirty, a dramatisation of the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden where she played CIA Intelligence Analyst Maya Harris.
Chastain has been lauded for her embodiment of Messner in a performance that some have described as a career high. Winning tonight would also mark a big year of bold performances for Chastain. She recently starred in the gut-wrenchingly raw Scenes From A Marriage, a remake of the 1973 Swedish series of the same name by Ingmar Bergman. It also starred Chastain’s long-time friend Oscar Isaac.
Earlier this year, and just another example of how the California-native has The Range, Chastain gave an incredible performance in the action-packed hit The 355. Also starring Diane Kruger and Lupita Nyong’o, Chastain spoke to Grazia about the impact of performing many of her own stunt scenes and how she and Kruger “almost killed each other”.
