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Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon star in ‘George & Tammy’

Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon have joined forces once again, but this time it’s to play a country music power couple.

The duo portrays Tammy Wynette and George Jones in the Showtime series “George & Tammy.” Back in 2011, they starred alongside each other in “Take Shelter.”


Chastain explained to KTLA 5’s Sam Rubin that she reached out to her former costar when she realized it was going to be a mini-series.

“I called Mike, I knew he loved to sing. He’s a musician, he loves to play the guitar and I just felt like it would be such a great thing to work on together,” she explained. “We’ve been trying to find something to do together over the past decade and it feels like we chose the right thing.”

While Shannon was “flattered” by the call, he admitted he was a bit intimidated to play such an icon.

“It’s a huge responsibility in order to play someone like George Jones, and the fact that Jessica thought that I might be able to pull it off, I was very flattered by that,” he revealed. “I’ve played a couple of real people before and anytime I set out to do something like that, particularly if that person’s passed away, I feel a big responsibility not to screw it up.”

Chastain herself called the experience “incredibly intimidating, incredibly scary, but definitely rewarding” because the couple were “storytellers through their songs.”

The actress’ Freckle Films actually produced the limited series and Chastain herself served as producer.

“George & Tammy” premieres on Dec. 4 at 9 p.m. on Showtime.