Michael Shannon Sang in the Cold for 15 Hours Straight to Nail 'George and Tammy' Scene

Actors have been known to go the extra mile in order to capture a scene just right, and it was revealed that Michael Shannon did just that for George and Tammy. During a Nov. 10 premiere screening in Nashville that PopCulture.com attended, the cast and creators of the series sat down for a panel discussion about bringing the project to life. During the conversation it was brought up that at one point while filming, Shannon sang in the cold for 15 hours straight to nail a scene as the legendary George Jones.

It was first mentioned by Shannon himself after being asked about singing in front of a crowd. "Eventually I felt like got more comfortable with it," he said. "There was one night ... If you keep watching the show, you'll see later on there's a sequence where we did a big nighttime outdoor show. And that was pretty early on in the shoot, and it was freezing cold outside. And we did it over and over and over and over and over. We were out there for..." he then trailed off, noting that his co-star Jessica Chastain — who portrays Tammy Wynette — was wearing a dress that was not very warm.

Later, music supervisor Rachel Moore elaborated on what went into capturing the performance. "l want to circle back and talk about these guys for a second, the performance that Michael was talking about earlier. I just want to speak on the dedication of these two, real quick. The performance he was talking about was the first real musical day that we had on set. And he had a heavy singing day that day. And I remember it was very, very cold. It was so cold."

She went on to recall, "There was ice on the microphone lines, and they froze and they quit working. Do you remember that? Quit working. And we were all miserable. And I remember looking at my clock and he had been singing for 15 hours straight pretty much. We made a decision early on to sing live, but I always gave them the option of after we get several takes, you can always start miming and start singing. And they never wanted to ever."

Moore continued, "I would beg them. I would say things like, 'Paul McCartney doesn't sing for eight hours. It's OK, I promise.' And they never tapped out. They never did. And I was always worrying about them like a mom, 'Don't strain your voice,' and all these things. But that day I remember we were all freezing and miserable. And it was 3 in the morning, I think. And he, after every take and reset, would say, 'How am I doing, Rachel? Am I doing OK?'"

Lastly, Moore shared, "And I finally said, 'Michael, you've been singing for 15 hours straight. You're doing great.' But I was just so impressed by the dedication that he wanted to hit it every single take, every single one. And I was just so impressed. And Jess was the same way. Yeah, I just wanted to highlight that. They really worked really hard and they really gave it their all, every single take, no matter if it was 10 hours, 12 hours. And so, yeah, you guys are awesome." George and Tammy airs Sunday nights on Showtime.