Tammy Faye Keeps the Faith

She’s been everything from a Bakker’s wife to a Surreal Life housemate, but the one thing Tammy Faye Messner refuses to be is unhappy. (And for a woman who has been spoofed since she first rocked the airwaves with her holy-roller high jinks, that’s saying a lot.) While braving her toughest battle — colon cancer that spread to a lung — Messner filmed Tammy Faye: Death Defying, a poignant, highly personal documentary with which she is now touring film festivals.

TVGuide.com: What inspired you to make this film?

Messner: I wanted to help people. Whether it’s AIDS or cancer, having a disease like this is a scary thing and I thought people needed to see what goes on. I wanted to take the fear away.

TVGuide.com: You had a hefty number of fears yourself, right?

Messner: Sure I did! I was very afraid of chemotherapy. And of course the part of my faith that says God doesn’t need medicine to heal you was having a fight with the part that says God made medicine, so the two can work together.

TVGuide.com: It must have been very hard to watch this part of your life over again…

Messner: It has been. [At one screening] there were tears in my eyes some of the time, and some of the time I was laughing my head off, being so grateful that it was over. My emotions were unbelievable.

TVGuide.com: One thing that viewers are sure to admire is how sweet your husband is through it all.

Messner: I don’t know if I could have made it if it weren’t for Roe, because he was such a powerhouse. It always helps to have people around who believe in you and know that you can do it.

TVGuide.com: As well as your dogs, right?

Messner: Oh yeah. [Giggles] I had my two puppies, my praying husband, my praying children and my praying friends. So I knew that I was going to make it.

TVGuide.com: In the film, you wonder how people who may not believe in "a higher power" endure something like cancer.

Messner: I don’t know how they do it, because they have to make it on pure guts; I don’t have that without God. He gives me optimism.

TVGuide.com: As you tour with the movie, is this your chance to “spread the word”?

Messner: I want to be an advocate for people going through [cancer], to show them that they can face what they need to face and get on with life.

TVGuide.com: Not to mention your Surreal life. Could you imagine your life getting any stranger than being in that house?

Messner: It was quite a leap of faith! But I just talked to all the kids from the house. Everybody’s doing great.

TVGuide.com: You keep in touch with Ron Jeremy?

Messner: Ron, Vanilla Ice, Erik Estrada... we all keep in touch. And I leave little "Mom" messages on Trishelle ’s machine. We all really care about each other.

TVGuide.com: Seriously, what do you and Ron Jeremy talk about?

Messner: [Laughs] Oh, mostly about my health. He’s a nice man, I have great admiration for him.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of admiration, The Eyes of Tammy Faye was a smash on the gay-film fest circuit. Did you do ever think you’d have such a diverse fan base?

Messner: Something really interesting happened with that film. I got a letter from a young man who was about 16 years old and about to commit suicide. He said that he walked in to rent [another] movie but didn't have enough money. The lady at the store said, "That’s not the movie you need. You need to see this movie" — and she gave him a copy of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. He told me it literally saved his life. That meant an awful lot to me.

TVGuide.com: Sounds like you have a lot of great moments.

Messner: I have fun with life. People need to learn to be able to laugh at adversity rather than cry over it.

TVGuide.com: Plus that way you don’t get the mascara running…

Messner: Oh, my mascara doesn’t run. [Laughs] It’s waterproof!

TVGuide.com: So what’s next for you?

Messner: I was hoping to go back to my roots on Christian television. I don’t know how, but I know that God can make anything happen.

TVGuide.com: Praise the Lord!

Messner: That’s right. Praise the Lord for that, honey!

Not long before Death Defying's premiere (and since this Q&A), Messner learned that her lung cancer has resurfaced; even so, she plans to continue her tour. " I'm not worried, I'm not afraid," she tells the Associated Press. "By the third time you have cancer, you begin to think about your mortality."