‘George & Tammy’ Mini-Series, Starring Jessica Chastain, Finally Set to Air in 2022
A mini-series about the lives and relationship of Tammy Wynette and George Jones, called George & Tammy, is finally scheduled to air this year after first being announced in 2020.
Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon will star as the titular country stars in the show.
George & Tammy is now slotted for late 2022, according to Vanity Fair, in a story that also reveals that Chastain and Shannon spent time training with Nashville-based vocal coach Ron Browning as they prepared to perform their versions of some of Wynette and Jones' classic hits as their characters. Among the songs that will be featured in the show are Wynette's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and Jones' "The Race Is On."
Chastain tells Variety Fair that she didn't know much about Wynette's life before signing on for the role, explaining that she knew her best as the singer behind "Stand by Your Man" — a classic that will get a nod in the television show, too.
“It was fascinating to me that someone like Tammy Wynette, who sang all these songs like ‘Stand by Your Man,’ also was married five times,” Chastain points out. “I was excited about this woman who was married and divorced multiple times and struggling in Nashville and really made a name for herself on her own. She charted multiple times before she met George Jones.”
Wynette's life was also marked by tragedy, pain and addiction, a period of time that will also be reflected in the mini-series. Chastain says she lost quite a bit of weight to play Wynette at the end of her life, when the singer was in the throes of health troubles and an addiction to painkillers.
"I don’t really like to look at scales, but I stopped eating," Chastain remarks. "I was drinking juices and I kept doing it until I looked sick."
Of course, at the center of the show will be Wynette's brief marriage to Jones, plus their enduring relationship as friends, fellow country stars and — perhaps most importantly — duet partners. The six-episode series is scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ later in 2022.