One of Glen Powell’s most cherished possessions is his “icon wisdom” journal; a book he has maintained throughout his career, where he jots down the most important learnings from the projects, filmmakers, and actors he has collaborated with.
Naturally, the journal is brimming with insights from his Top Gun: Maverick co-star and now-friend, mentor, and guide to everything magical in life: Tom Cruise. In an earlier interview, Powell shared one of his favorite pieces of advice from Cruise: the superstar doesn’t just pick great roles; he picks great projects and then makes the roles great. This philosophy is something Powell has been consciously trying to follow since the $1.5 billion box-office success of Maverick (2022) turned his life around overnight. He is also credited with reviving the theatrical rom-com with Anyone but You, and for his incredibly slick turn in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, which eventually led him to sign on for the upcoming Twisters, a standalone sequel to the 1996 blockbuster disaster film.
Directed by Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters also stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Fresh, Where the Crawdads Sing) and Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In The Heights). Powell plays Tyler Owens, a daring but charismatic storm-chasing social media star who encounters meteorologist Kate Cooper (Edgar-Jones) and her colleague Javi (Ramos), who are testing a new tornado tracking system. As storm season hits central Oklahoma, the trio finds themselves in the battle of their lives, trying to escape — and possibly tame — multiple unpredictable tornadoes that could destroy everything in their path.
Powell has added both Edgar-Jones and Ramos to his wisdom journal after wrapping up the ambitious project. He holds much respect for how Edgar-Jones approaches her characters. “One thing that I took away from Daisy for my journal is the way that she breaks down a character,” Powell said. “She has this amazing process where she charts out the entire movie in a detailed manner, almost like a filmmaker. It really allows you to see the entire arc and temperature of different aspects of the movie. I’m not quite as Type A as Daisy; she really is the top student of the cast of Twisters.” He added with a laugh, “But it’s fantastic how she tackled her character in such a deliberate nature, especially being part of a film where there’s so much happening on the effects and stunts front.”
On the other hand, Powell spoke highly of Ramos’s childlike sense of wonder. “Anthony has this beautiful sense of play. Every single day, he approaches his job with such a sense of childlike wonder, brings his brother around everywhere, and makes sure that people laugh on set.” Powell added, “As an actor, you sometimes forget that people are looking to you to guide the tone on set; Anthony has such a buoyant, infectious smile that everyone looks at him and instantly smiles too! Movie sets can be the most wonderful places on the planet, and Anthony wears that responsibility of keeping it so proudly, and reminding us of it.”
Much has been made of the chemistry between Powell and Edgar-Jones during the press tour. The fans, seeing the palpable connection between the two actors, have only heightened the anticipation surrounding the film.
Edgar-Jones’ impeccable taste in music also helped the cast bond on set, especially during long hours shooting inside cars venturing through open landscapes. She came to be known as the resident DJ on set, nicknamed “DJ EJ.” “First of all, we all love the Twisters soundtrack itself,” Daisy mused. “It’s so good and stacked with incredible artists… almost like the Avengers of country music.
. The music is such a joyful, big part of the film and an integral part of storm-chasing for real. You’re in the car for hours and hours, and driving across very flat surfaces, so you need some form of entertainment to keep you going.”
Edgar-Jones, recently spotted at the Glastonbury music festival with friends Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan, and others, explained her diverse musical tastes. “My musical tastes are a real range; I love classics since I inherited all my parents’ vinyls when I was a kid. So I grew up listening to the soundtracks of their childhood, and they had great taste in music… from Al Green to Pink Floyd. I love anything that has a funk and a beat, really. I even made these guys listen to Charli XCX since I’m really into club and dance music these days, and it’s brat summer!”
As with any sequel, Twisters promises plenty of tributes. “Some of the shots from the original Twister movie have been recreated in this one, along with several homages,” Powell, a self-confessed movie trivia buff, said. “For instance, Daisy’s character of Kate is reminiscent of Bill Paxton’s character in the 1996 version — she’s reinvigorated and brought back into this world after a devastating encounter — and even gets to reenact one of his iconic dialogues.”
Reflecting on what he learned from his time on Top Gun: Maverick, Powell said, “When you’re making a franchise film, you have got to find elements of the original that you honor, but the new film has to exist on its own merit. You can’t just rely on nostalgia or tricks of the past. That’s where our director Lee Isaac Chung came in; he grew up in a part of the world around tornadoes and knows the community who live in such regions inside out. So we tried to honor the feeling of the original movie, the community of storm-chasers, and update this without being too derivative. And I think we have succeeded.”
Daisy added, “Also, the first Twister movie was among the first-ever titles to get a release on DVD after its theatrical run. During the shoot, Bill used to give weather reports at the beginning of every filming day!”
For stage actor and singer Ramos, a memorable moment during the Twisters experience was when executive producer Steven Spielberg asked him not to use a Southern accent for his role. “It made me feel that it was possible for a kid from the hood to go study meteorology and be this brilliant meteorologist and storm chaser. This is something that a kid like me could do.” Ramos said he was initially prepared to do the Southern accent. “But after I heard that Spielberg wanted me to retain my dialect, I was really grateful. I sound like a Puerto Rican dude from Bushwick in Brooklyn, and I’ve never heard anyone with that sort of a dialect play a scientist in a movie… much less one of this scale. Of course, playing Javi needed some work, but to be him with this kind of vernacular and vocabulary was really cool. It was one less thing to worry about!”
Twisters is set to release on July 18 in theaters.
