How a lot have you ever actually considered Tammy Wynette’s track, “Stand By Your Man”?
Did you assume, maybe unthinkingly, it was an ode to complete forgiveness and unquestioning loyalty, to subsuming your self to a person?
That was a “big misconception” Jessica Chastain needed to recover from when she took on the position of Wynette in George and Tammy, the miniseries biopic of her private {and professional} relationship with George Jones.
Wynette and Jones had a tumultuous partnership, having met when she was a brassy up-and-comer, and he already a longtime nation music famous person – however behind the scenes, his life was a large number of alcohol and dalliances.
The scene by which they meet for the primary time, she’s in his lodge room, primarily auditioning to affix his tour and he’s in mattress with one other girl mendacity subsequent to him.
Despite the facility imbalance and the extremely inappropriate set-up, Wynette discovers the arrogance to present it to Jones. That’s what Chastain learnt in regards to the music icon she was to painting.
“I came in with this initial judgment, this idea of ‘How am I going to sing the song Stand By Your Man?’ It feels so contrary to everything I say or my politics.” Chastain advised news.com.au.
“Then I started to realise, the more I was reading about her, that she was married five times and she was a force to be reckoned with. She showed up in Nashville – divorced, a single mum with three kids – to become a singer, and all by herself.
“She really was an incredible person who was not a victim.
“And ‘Stand By Your Man’ is not about being a doormat. So much of that song is about when someone’s struggling, when he’s struggling, you stand by them.
“In some sense, that’s what she did with George. When they divorced, she never abandoned him. She never left him. She took him on tour with her and she always cared about him and wanted to take care of him.”
Chastain mentioned it was essential to the George and Tammy crew, together with co-star Michael Shannon, to point out that at the least at the beginning of the connection, there was plenty of love between Wynette and Jones.
So that even when it later descends into tempestuous instances with violence and nastiness – which Shannon says is “never fun” to play – audiences perceive the complexity of that partnership, and why it’s not a binary of keep or go away.
“There’s still love present, which I think is the only reason to watch it,” Chastain defined.
Chastain, who this yr received an Oscar for enjoying a special Tammy (TV evangelist Tammy Faye), and Shannon had a a lot much less dramatic relationship. Having one another made the duty of embodying two nation legends much less intimidating.
“I can imagine if it was just the Tammy Wynette or George Jones miniseries, that would’ve been scary,” Shannon advised news.com.au. “But we had to go through it together, you know?
“Before we even started shooting, we studied the music and work with a vocal coach, and we were like two kids at the conservatory or something. It was just a fun thing to do together, particularly with Jessica.”
Wynette and Jones could have been nation music icons of the twentieth century, however the collection will possible nonetheless introduce new audiences to their music and the essence of who they have been – and even perhaps contextualise “Stand By Your Man”.
“Real ardent fans of George and Tammy probably aren’t going to be super surprised by anything they see in this,” Shannon mentioned. “But I think it’s still valuable. There will be people who will be introduced to these characters, these people and their music who otherwise wouldn’t have known about it.
“And maybe even sell a few records here and there.”
George and Tammy is streaming now on Paramount+
Originally printed as Jessica Chastain’s ‘big misconception’ about Tammy Wynette’s iconic track
