At long last, Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon get to be a dynamic duo in George & Tammy. The limited series debuts simultaneously on Showtime and Paramount Network on December 4, and audiences will get to see Chastain play her second real-life Tammy in as many years. The Eyes of Tammy Faye gave the acclaimed actress her first Oscar win, while Shannon enchanted audiences on screens big and small with Nine Perfect Strangers and Bullet Train.
Geoge & Tammy brings the two actors together for the first time since 2011's Take Shelter, and the wait is well worth it. While Tammy Wynette as a person was less controversial than televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, her marriage to musician George Jones was under plenty of scrutiny. The superstar songstress and her husband's love life built the foundation for some of her most popular songs, such as "Stand By Your Man" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E." The new 6-episode series aims to go behind the music and get to the heart of the story for both Wynette and Jones, but there are still plenty of songs to go around.
While promoting George & Tammy's international release on Paramount+, Chastain and Shannon spoke to Screen Rant about the decade-long trajectory from pitch to production as well as what personally inspires them when it comes to the iconic musicians they're portraying.
Jessica Chastain & Michael Shannon on George & Tammy
Screen Rant: Jessica, you are officially the queen of playing real-life Tammys. What drew you to Tammy Wynette in particular?
Jessica Chastain: I didn't ever imagine or seek out to play Tammy Wynette. I didn't grow up listening to her music, and I didn't really know much about her. Someone approached me in 2011, and I was like, "Yeah, sounds good. Let's do it!" Then I loved the script when I read it, and gosh, it was 10 years until this incarnation. I'm glad it took the time it did, because I've had a lot of time to study her and learn everything I could about her. We got to expand it into a miniseries, which honestly just feels like a six-hour film. It doesn't really feel episodic in its nature.
I was also working with Mike, after we did Take Shelter together. We filmed that in 2010, I think, and we've been looking for another project to do for the last decade. [On] something like this, it's so important that you have a scene partner that you can really rely on; that you have a very similar way of working, and the desire to do the work and honor the people that we're playing, like Mike has. And to actually work with a musician on the singing! It just felt like everything happened in the time and the place it was supposed to.
Mike, in of honoring the character of George Jones, who is a legend in the country music world, what did you want to bring to his character and show the world about him?
Michael Shannon: When Jessica, approached me about doing it, I didn't really know an awful lot about him. I had seen him on television when I was a kid, and I ed his face, but I wasn't really that familiar with his music.
But what surprised me is that I would mention this project to people I knew, and one by one they would be like, "Oh my God, that's amazing. I love George Jones." It was kind of like this secret thing that all these people I knew were so into George Jones. One of my best friends was like, "You've gotta hear this song." He started playing "The Race Is On," and it just blew my mind. I'm like, "Yeah, this is worth doing."
Then I just start reading books, like his autobiography. I know he had help, and I don't think he wrote every word of it, but I really fell for the guy. He definitely seemed like a tormented individual who had a hard time putting one foot in front of the other sometimes, but he was just a really sweet person underneath it all; very sensitive. And the music's just incredible.
And then this relationship? I'm so glad it's George & Tammy, because to me, that really is the story. I mean, they're both fascinating people in their own right. But I think the most interesting part of it is them together; them singing together, and showing how the songs they made told the story of their lives and their relationship and who they are.
About George & Tammy
A limited series chronicling country music’s king and queen, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, whose wild and troubled love story inspired some of the most iconic music of all time.
Check out our other George & Tammy interview with creator Abe Sylvia as well.
George & Tammy will be premiere simultaneously on Showtime and Paramount Network on December 4 at 9 pm ET/PT. Subsequent episodes air on Showtime and be available to stream on Paramount+ outside the US and Canada.