Both Paxton and Hunt had expressed interest in making a sequel to “Twister” over the years, but their projects never got off the ground. On February 25, 2017, Paxton died after complications from heart surgery.
Fortunately, his son James Paxton, who was just over a year old when his father made the first film, is now also an actor and landed a role in “Twisters,” playing a disgruntled motel owner in a key scene.
“For James to agree to have a cameo in this movie was incredible – just to have him and kind of have a spiritual connection with Bill on set with us,” says Chung.
Paxton told Variety he auditioned for the role, but once he got the offer, he and his family had to consider the emotional implications of participating in the sequel. Ultimately, it felt like the right thing to do to honor his father’s legacy and a project that had been special to him.
“This one is for him and for ‘Twister’ fans. I thought it was really cool of them to find a way to integrate that,” said James Paxton. “I wanted to be a channel for Dad’s spirit. I wish he was the one to appear in this new chapter instead of me, but I’m happy to do it.
Once on set, he also discovered an interesting connection with Powell.
“Glen had worked with my father before [on the 2013 indie ‘Red Wing’] and he told me some funny stories,” Paxton shared. “Then somehow ‘Spy Kids 3’ came up, and Glen said, ‘That was my first movie ever,’ and I said, ‘That was my first movie ever.’ I was nine years old and visiting my father on set, and it was Robert Rodriguez’s idea that threw me into this junior version [of Bill Paxton’s character].”
The Paxtons aren’t the only family connections in the film: Powell’s parents, Glen Sr. and Cyndy, make a cameo in the rodeo scene (they have played small roles in many of the actor’s films and sit directly behind him and Edgar Jones). Plus, his sister Leslie Powell will sing the national anthem to kick off the star-studded series.
In the same scene, a background actor sits next to Edgar-Jones, who told Chung she was appearing in his breakthrough film, the Oscar-nominated “Minari.”
“I was very happy about that,” says Chung. “But then she said, ‘And I was in the original ‘Twister.’”
Turns out the extra had also appeared in an emotional scene in which Hunt’s Jo surveys the wreckage of the small town of Wakita and catches a glimpse of a mother, father and their young daughter that reminds her of her own daughter (before her father was swept away in the traumatic prologue of that film).
“That was not our goal. That just happened,” the filmmaker adds excitedly. “What a coincidence? That was crazy!”
