Such regal displays of chutzpah might have made Tammy Faye a gay icon, but she was also a committed Christian, which, for most people, would have been irreconcilable. But as Bailey says: “She stood in contrast to those Christian people who thought that make up was a sin and called her ‘Jezebel’ and ‘harlot’. When we made a sequel to the documentary [2004’s Tammy Faye: Death Defying], it played at the Castro in San Francisco, which is the gayest place on earth. And Tammy was asked if she believed in gay marriage, and she said no. And you’d have thought that the audience would tear her alive. But they loved her, because she believed in what she believed, and loved us. At the end of her life, she gave an interview in which she said, ‘I’m so grateful to the gay community, because when everyone else rejected me, they took me in.’ And that’s a beautiful thing.”     

The filmmakers are very complimentary about the new motion picture, which they executive produced and acted as consultants for; they describe the experience of watching it as “emotional, surprising and surreal”, and credit Chastain’s performance for its impact. “We didn’t expect anyone to ever be able to bring Tammy Faye to life. But Jessica did, and the details – even the way she moved her fingers – are so precise that it’s chilling, and haunting, and surreal.” 

Yet they candidly admit that they had their initial doubts as to whether she could pull it off. “When we first met Jessica, we weren’t entirely sure, but then neither was she. She told us that on the first day of shooting, she all but had a breakdown, saying, ‘What did I get myself into? I can’t play this role!’ But Tammy had an expression, ‘run to the raw’, which I loved, and Jessica embraced it.” Today, Bailey says: “I can’t think of anyone else who could have played her, except Jean Smart, maybe? But Jessica understands the importance of Tammy, and her radicalism. She’s not just the perfect actress, but she gets it.”  

They credit Messner as being one of their creative inspirations, along with their long-term collaborator RuPaul, of whom Barbato says: “I would have predicted that RuPaul would be a global phenomenon. What shape or form that would be in, I couldn’t have known, but the first time we met Ru, it was a moment of recognition. ‘Oh my gosh! Here’s a superstar!’ It was just a question of waiting for the world to respond.”