Jessica Chastain wins Best Actress at the 2022 Oscars

Jessica Chastain won the Oscar for Best Actress, presented by presenter Anthony Hopkins.

In her speech, which was broadcast live from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, Chastain received a round of applause and thanked her “brilliant” co-star Andrew Garfield.

“So many people out there feel hopeless and alone, and suicide is one of the leading killers in the United States,” she noted.

“It touched a lot of families. It touched me and especially the members of the LGBTQ community… we are faced with discriminatory and bigoted laws sweeping our country with the sole aim of further dividing us. There’s violence and hate crimes… at times like this I think of Tammy and am inspired by her radical acts of love.”

Chastain ousted other nominees – Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penelope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”) – for the win.

A first winner, 45-year-old Chastain plays former TV evangelist Tammy Faye Messnerwho once had a cult following with husband Jim Bakker on her religious radio network before being jailed for fraud and embroiled in a sex scandal, in the Michael Showalter-directed film.

Chastain — who has twice been nominated for Oscars in her career, for best supporting actress in The Help and best actress in Zero Dark Thirty — said Playing Tammy left her with “permanent” skin damage due to the “heavy” makeup.

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“I certainly think I’ve done permanent damage to my skin by doing this. Look, I eat very clean and I take very good care of my skin and I stay out of the sun and all that stuff,” she said explained the Los Angeles Times. “But it is difficult. And if you wear it all day, every day – the weight on your body stretches your skin.”