Before he was a chart topping country front man, Midland’s Mark Wystrach was an actor and model — and he recently got back in front of a camera. As revealed in a wide-ranging profile piece by The Washington Post, Wystrach took some time away from the band in late 2019 to appear in the new docu-drama, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
The film documents the life story of famed Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, and stars Golden Globe-winner Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, The Martian). Wystrach plays opposite Chastain as country singer and producer Gary Paxton, Bakker’s apparent love interest despite her marriage to then-husband Jim Bakker, who is played by Andrew Garfield (Spiderman, Hacksaw Ridge).
Based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, the film reportedly takes place around the same time Bakker’s husband was having an affair with his secretary. And although there’s no indication on the movie’s release plans (especially since the pandemic hit), shooting began in North Carolina last November.
In the summer of 2019 Midland released their second album, Let It Roll, and their current single is the honky-tonk inspired “Cheatin’ Songs.”
