Tammy Faye Messner - television personality - Interview

Interview, July, 2000 by RuPaul

PRAISE THE LORD! THE EYES STILL HAVE IT!

She's lived through a lot since the 1970s and '80s, when the PTL ("Praise the Lord") Club was a national phenomenon for those in search of God--and kitschy television entertainment. There were drugs and rehab, a runaway child, public humiliation by Jerry Falwell, the press, and Saturday Night Live, not to mention two husbands--one of whom strayed, both of whom landed in prison. Throughout it all, however, Tammy Faye Bakker, now Messner, never lost her faith or her grace. She proves it in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a new documentary directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbain and narrated by her friend RuPaul, who interviews her here.

RUPAUL: Why do you think God chose you to be in the spotlight?

TAMMY FAYE MESSNER: I think He has to choose someone that He can trust, and I think God knew He could trust me to serve Him no matter what, and no matter what the consequences were.

R: Through all that's happened over the past ten, twenty years, people have always continued to like you. Does that surprise you?

TFM: Yes. Because of what the press has done to me, Ru. I mean, if I believed all the press, I wouldn't like the person they wrote about. This girl with eyelashes and a fluffball hairdo? They painted me as a crybaby. They painted me so differently from what I am. And I have always laughed much more than I have cried. The only time I cried on TV was when the presence of the Lord touched my heart or when I was hurting for someone that I was ministering to. But I cared about the people. And then they painted me as an airhead. I am not an airhead. I am a very deep thinker. I think I'm as intelligent as the next person. Ru, to me the most frustrating thing about being interviewed is everybody thinks I'm this dumb blonde, and I'm not a blonde, for one thing, and I'm not dumb.

R: Gee, who is a blonde really?

TFM: They think all I know about is PTL and what happened then, but I know about life's lessons.

R: Do you have a list of reporters who you refuse to be interviewed by?

TFM: No. And I'll tell you why not: because they're gonna write about you whether you want them to or not, Ru. So you might as well take the chance that maybe they'll change their minds and give you the benefit of the doubt.

R: I cannot stand when people are interviewing me because I have to watch everything I say. I wish just once I could say everything that I really want to say.

TFM: Isn't that the truth? [both cackling] The only way I dare do it is on live TV, and then I let 'er rip. Because on live TV there's not a whole lot they can do.

R: Do you feel there are certain boundaries you have to create for yourself as a person?

TFM: Never--not when I'm out with the public.

R: But, when you go to, say, the dentist or to the gynecologist, how embarrassing is it for you to be sitting up in there and somebody's in your mouth or something, and they say, "Oh, I just loved you on ..."?

TFM: Oh, I know it! Hah! That's why I always make sure my gynecologist is a woman. [laughs] I feel very free with another woman. I don't think I would go to a male gynecologist. I would be too nervous. I have heard about some not-very-nice doctors and what they did when famous people came in to see them. You know the old story with Marilyn Monroe and how the doctor saved her pubic hair and carried it around in his wallet?

R: Have friends betrayed your trust a lot?

TFM: Not my real friends, not my girlfriends. Some have been offered hundreds of thousands of dollars and refused to betray my trust, which I will always be grateful for. I've had girlfriends who have gone into comedy clubs and, when there were comic routines about me, stood up and said, "Tammy is my friend, and I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you talk like that." It ruined their whole act.

R: Does it make you gun-shy to meet new people?

TFM: It makes me gun-shy to go to a comedy club. [both laugh] I won't go anywhere where they're doing jokes unless they know I'm there, because that gives them fair warning. And I don't want them to embarrass themselves. I don't care about them embarrassing me; I can hardly be embarrassed any more.

R: Do you consider yourself religious?

TFM: No, not at all. I just consider myself a Christian. I don't like religion. Religion destroys. There are terrible wars that have been fought in the name of religion. People judging one another harshly--that's religion. That has nothing to do with knowing God. Religion puts people in categories and puts sin in categories. A Christian loves. A Christian follows God's word. A Christian is someone who leaves the judging to God and who is always there to help other people.

R: Deepak Chopra was on Larry King a couple of months ago, and he brought up something really interesting. He said, Jesus was not a Christian, and that Buddha was not a Buddhist, and Krishna was not a Hare Krishna. He said those things came about later.

TFM: An interesting thought. I think Jesus came down to earth as just a man that walked on this earth; he gave his life for the sins of this world because his dad wanted him to. I think Jesus was lots of fun. I think he was very practical, and I think he laughed a lot. I think he grieved for people who were hurting. I think he was a very normal man.