In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast, guest host Joe Scott explores the lives of star-crossed lovers as well as love-crossed country music stars in the award-winning Showtime miniseries “George and Tammy.”
Created by Abe Sylvia (“Nurse Jackie,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” “Hap and Leonard,” and “The Affair“), all six episodes of the miniseries were directed by Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat. A veteran helmer of music videos, Hillcoat first broke out in the world of cinema with the brutally austere 2005 western “The Proposition,” a movie many critics compared to the Cormac McCarthy novel “Blood Meridian.” Interestingly enough, McCarthy agreed with these comparisons, going so far as to give the director permission to adapt his then-unreleased novel “The Road,” which Hillcoat translated to the big screen in 2009.
Talking with Bingeworthy, Hillcoat discusses the shift from feature films to directing this entire six-hour miniseries, which captures the intense, albeit tragic love story of country music legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette, as played by stars Michael Shannon (“The Flash,” “Waco,” “Shotgun Stories”) and Jessica Chastain (“The Tree of Life“).
“The streaming world has profoundly changed the entire business,” Hillcoat told Bingeworthy. “This is what the strikes are about – everything’s changed. We all knew this was coming. We all saw it when it began with music. The technology basically changed everything for music, but then it’s now profoundly changed everything for me.”
During an interview with Bingeworthy’s Mike DeAngelo, Shannon dished on the challenge of playing Jones, which included performing all of the series’ musical numbers himself. Hillcoat adds that it was a longtime dream of his to work with Shannon on a project and that the actor did not disappoint.
“What was exciting was that this showed so many aspects that we haven’t seen before with Michael,” Hillcoat said. “So it’s always great to work with a great actor that is exploring other sides to themselves and aspects to a character that they haven’t really done before.”
You can stream all episodes of “George & Tammy” on Showtime Anytime or Paramount+ with Showtime. Listen to the full interview with John Hillcoat below:
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