Mitchell Travers (‘George and Tammy’ costume designer) on collaborating with Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon [Exclusive Video Interview]
“When you take on a famous person’s life in this way, it’s very important to the fan base,” says Mitchell Travers, the costume designer for Showtime’s limited series “George and Tammy.” “I wanted them to feel like we got it right and that we understood who Tammy Wynette was through the various years that we were covering.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“George and Tammy” is a six-episode telling of the volatile relationship between country superstars George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Reviews have been exceptional, with the critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reading, “This biopic benefits from a pair of well-matched and supremely committed leads.” Chastain was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a SAG Award for her performance.
“Jessica is incredibly hands on with the creation of her characters,” Travers reveals. “It’s a system that we’ve figured out together over the course of projects. We are working on our fifth, at the moment, together, so it’s a shorthand that’s developed over time. I prefer it whenever you can get that collaboration with your actors. Some people approach it very differently, where they’re not so much tied into the costumes, but more often than not what I hear is that the actors, for the first time, actually see the character in the fitting room. It’s so important for our departments to get it right.”
After we discuss Wynette’s clothing throughout the years, Travers explains, “I still wonder why George Jones has not been given his due in the fashion world. There have been collections that Elvis has inspired, and Frank Sinatra, his style has certainly spawned a million copies. George Jones has such a wealth. His color coordination, his risk-taking when it comes to color combinations and heat-to-toe dressing. In the first couple of fittings with Michael I had to sort of teach him that the way that George got dressed was ensemble dressing. It wasn’t pieces that got put together. George was dressed from head to toe and the ring matched the spurs on his shoes. He was obsessed with the details of his clothing.”
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