STORIES FROM THE SET: BEHIND THE SCENES OF SISSY

If Sissy had a slogan, it’d probably have to be “never say never”. From Cheryl designing pieces she never imagined she would to a series of comical occurrences on the photoshoot that had us shaking our heads and laughing until our sides hurt. These are a few of our favorite never-say-never moments:

BEING IN A BAR AT 7 A.M. ON A MONDAY.

It’s hard to put into words, but it is a strange feeling being in one of the largest – and famously, rowdiest – honky-tonks in Texas when it’s totally vacant, eerily quiet, and perfectly still. It’s like when you’re a kid and you see your teacher outside of school for the first time – it’s a thing you subconsciously know happens, but you never really think about it or witness it. Perhaps the only thing more disorienting than leaving the bar when the sun is coming up, is entering it. And if you’ve ever been to Billy Bob’s, you may think you have a concept of how big it is, but believe me, you can’t fully grasp the enormity until you see it empty.

BEING THE FIRST CUSTOMER IN THE LIQUOR STORE.

When hair-and-makeup starts around dawn, time tends to pass in a perplexing way, especially inside a dark bar. So, when we needed a bottle of tequila with a worm in it – pardon me, ‘mezcal con guisano’ – we hopped in the car without a second thought and headed to the liquor store. After a few befuddling seconds trying to figure out why the automatic sliding doors weren’t opening, it dawned on us that it wasn’t yet 10 a.m., and we were now “that person” waiting for them to unlock the doors at the spirit shop. Turns out, they literally don’t care why you’re there first thing in the morning, and the more you try to explain that you need a bottle of tequila at 10 a.m. for work the more it comes across as thou doth protest too much. 

P.S. Trying to “train” said worm to float the way we wanted it for photos was a whole ‘nother endeavor.

INTERACTING WITH A TAXIDERMY BULL.

We shared our staff photos from our pseudo-bull rides recently, but the whole experience was comical. For starters, Lozzie sniffed it; now, we grant her a lot of grace because when we bring her out to Texas, she encounters a lot of things you just don’t find in L.A., but – just, why? Also, after spending an entire day convincing her that the bull was not real and had never been alive, we were casually put in our place when a Billy Bob’s staff member walked by and nonchalantly said, “Yes, he is.” Oh. For those wondering, he most likely smelled like spray paint; apparently they periodically have to ‘refresh’ his spots.

DONNING A FISHNET TANK TOP.

If you’ve seen Urban Cowboy, one of the things that probably stuck in your mind was Gus’ fishnet T-shirt. To this day, it seems like a strange wardrobe choice for honky-tonk hardened ex-con, but it was nothing if not memorable. A stickler for details, Cheryl was able to get her hands on a couple tank top variations of the iconic top, and while we bought them for the models, we certainly spent a good portion of the day trying to talk Jack into putting it on. No dice.

CONFESSING OUR GROSSEST COLLEGE COCKTAIL COMBINATIONS.

Spending 10-ish hours in a bar, naturally, the conversation turned to booze at some point. There was a lot of talk about the different types of alcohol we do and don’t drink, and that ‘one we’ll never drink again’ (c’mon, everybody has one), and eventually, we got to admitting the less-than-savory things we used to drink in college. Now, we’re not gonna name any names, but let’s just say – somebody among us drank Jägermeister with pickle juice and yet another of us chased tequila shots with Cheetos. Now that we will say ‘never’ to.

COORS MAKING A SELTZER.

By now, everybody and their Mama is making a ‘summer seltzer’, but somehow, we just never imagined Coors jumping on that bandwagon. We stand corrected. And, as tends to happen toward the end of a shoot when we’re all simpled out, the joke took on a life of its own, trying to imagine just who their target demographic is. “Ok, but really, a guy walks up to you drinking a Coors Seltzer – are you gonna dance with him?” Who knows, maybe they’re delicious, but the hypotheticals were hilarious.

Hey, never say never.