Jessica Chastain is “completely stunned” after winning the Best Actress award for her role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye at the Screen Actors Guild Awards 2022.
The 44-year-old actor beat Olivia Colman, Jennifer Hudson, Lady Gaga and Nicole Kidman for the award.
During an emotional acceptance speech, Chastain said she was really “surprised” to have won this award.
“Whoa. Wow. Okay, I’m really surprised. Thank you SAG for this, I’m completely stunned,” she said. “I had the best acting troupe one could have with Andrew Garfield, Vincent D’Onofrio, Cherry Jones. I’m the luckiest person ever.”
Chastain continued by revealing that it was a “dream” of hers to play the role of evangelist Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Bakker).
“She was a real trailblazer,” the actor said, before pausing and saying: “I’m so nervous!”
“She wrapped her arms around those who were repeatedly cast aside and she launched herself into decades of LGBTQ love. I worked on the project for 10 years, and I hope that we made her story in a way that she would be proud of,” Chastain said.
“I wanted to be an actor my whole life, and ever since I was a kid it was the only thing I ever really thought about, and there were years of studying and auditioning and not getting jobs,” the Ava actor added. “And I know what that feels like and I know the loneliness of what that feels like.”
She wrapped up her speech with a message to everyone who is “struggling and feeling unseen”.
“For those of you who are struggling and feeling unseen I just want you to keep going because you’re one job away, I promise! And the thing that really kept me going was you. It was everyone in this room and it was this community,” Chastain said.
You can find the complete list of film and TV winners at the 2022 SAG Awards here.
