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The legacy of Bill Paxton: A journey through ”Twister” and beyond
The late Bill Paxton was a new dad when he set out for Oklahoma to chase tornadoes for the natural disaster thriller “Twister” in 1995. His son, James, was just over a year old, and Bill’s wife, Louise, brought the baby out for a visit.
“I was a little too young to be forming lasting, cognitive memories, but there are some cool photos,” James Paxton, now 30, tells Variety, smiling as he describes a shot of the toddler version of himself posing with his dad in Bill’s (his father’s character in the movie shared the same name) iconic red Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck. “Unfortunately, I don’t remember that, but I’m glad that we have the photo to say, ‘Hey, I was there.’”
On February 25, 2017, Bill Paxton died from complications of heart surgery. James Paxton had already followed in his father’s footsteps to become an actor, and now, he makes a cameo in “Twisters.” The long-awaited sequel, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos, opens in theaters on July 17. Watch the trailer.
A surreal experience: James Paxton’s reflections
“It’s surreal to be talking about this for so many different reasons,” Paxton says ahead of the film’s L.A. premiere on Thursday night, where he’ll walk the red carpet with his sister, Lydia. “But it’s very, very exciting for this new chapter to get out into the world. And for it to not only be fun for people who saw the original when they were younger — and maybe they have kids that they get to show this new chapter to — but maybe it brings people back to the original, and back and forth.”
Paxton was about 10 years old before he took an active interest in watching his father’s films. Before that, he says, “I just had this idea that, ‘Oh, he has a cool job,’ because when my sister and I aren’t in school, we get to go visit him in these different places and travel.” The first time he saw “Twister,” it was on cable.
“Dad was making dinner and he called me in, like, ‘Hey, look, what’s on. It’s your old man,’” Paxton recalls.
Even today, Paxton will be traveling, and when he clicks on the television in his hotel room, he’ll see his dad and Helen Hunt trying to outrun a tornado. “‘Twister’ just constantly is in the universe,” he says.
And he’s as much a fan of the movie as your average moviegoer. “It’s one of those movies that has such a specific feeling — just sheer exhilaration. It’s a movie that feels like it takes you places, that literally moves you right into the eye of a twister.”
Honoring a legacy: James Paxton’s journey
Paxton’s appearance in ”Twisters” comes amid a trio of tributes to his dad. He’s also starring opposite Malcolm McDowell in the western-set film “Last Train to Fortune” — in a role that Bill Paxton had planned to play when the film was in development in the 1990s. He’s also releasing the nostalgic single “Count on Me” (his first track as a solo artist; he goes by Love, Pax) with an accompanying music video that intercuts footage of the young Paxton family with Super 8mm film from a road trip his dad took with friends in the 70s.
“It’s been really hard, like a long time coming to be able to talk about the loss of my dad, for myself and my family,” Paxton says. “I’ve wanted to do things that help keep his memory alive and keep me feeling as connected to him as possible. I always will. But I’ve had to put a lot of it into the art to deal with it, to get through, because there were times I didn’t know how to keep going in this career and be my own person. Just missing my mentor, my hero, who’s not here to see it.”
The Paxton family: A personal narrative
I first heard about “Twisters” in the trades, and I was like, “Oh, that’s interesting, I wonder….” Then I got an audition through my agents. I read for it, and as was customary post-COVID — where most auditions are taped and you send them in, and you never really know if somebody watches them or not — sometimes it takes a while to hear anything. A lot of time went by, so I thought, “I guess maybe that’s not going to be something that I’m involved in,” and then they reached out and had an offer.
It was something that I had to take a second to really think about — just for the sheer emotional context and weight of it, because of Dad’s significance in the original and how to do a cameo that is fun for the fans, an Easter egg, and is representative of his spirit. To give a nice blessing to this new chapter because so many wonderful and talented people are making it.
I’ve been acting for 10 years now too, and I never shy away from talking about or celebrating him, because he’s my best friend. But he also hasn’t been here for most of my career. I love getting to pay homage to him, but I know he wanted to make sure that I was my own man and my own actor.
So, this one is for him and for “Twister” fans. I thought that it was really cool of them to find some way to incorporate that. I wanted to be a conduit for Dad’s spirit. I wish he was the one here to be appearing in this new chapter instead of me, but I’m happy to do it. I met a lot of great people, and I think it’s going to be the most successful film of the summer. I hope it is.
“Twister” was a real triumphant moment for my dad in his career; he had been working a very long time to get to that point. It’s a star-making turn; you can’t be at the helm of anything bigger, and it was a really happy time in Dad’s life. The people who worked on the film, like my godfather, Scott Thompson (who plays Preacher in the original — the guy with the long hair, listening to the classical music) talked about how Dad would just throw a football around with the crew in the downtime, and he would take people out for dinner. He would just be picking up the tab for people, because he wanted to raise morale in the way that his character has to as the glue of this ragtag team. If you’re going to step into that, you’ve got to be a good leader.
The last time I watched the original was last year before I went to Oklahoma. I didn’t need to watch it again, because I know the movie so well, but I love to watch it. Growing up, my favorite little moment of Dad’s was where he walks off by himself, he picks up the earth to test the wind, and he has this private little moment. I always thought that that was powerful. And I’m pretty sure this is something Dad threw in, but when he’s driving through the house, he yells, “We’re going in!” and just goes straight through. That’s such a good moment because he always threw in little things from real life.
Like when he directed “Frailty,” he also plays the father of two sons. He’s calling him “Buddy boy” and tells them, “Don’t let the bed bugs bite. And if they do …” then one of the sons says, “Hit ’em with a shoe!” He said that to me and my sister every night growing up and “Buddy boy” is something he called me. There are a lot of moments where it’s just like, “Well, that’s just Dad.”
Dad really was the consummate filmmaker, and he wanted to direct. He loved acting, but he really wanted to be a part of the process of a project from conception to the end. He directed “The Greatest Game Ever Played” for Disney, and then “Frailty,” and he was looking for another project, and had gotten very interested in potentially directing a “Twister” sequel. He took my godfather, Scott, on a road trip through multiple states of “Twister” territory and they started researching all this, like strange weather phenomena. He had all these wild ideas to explore things like ball lightning — a weird phenomenon where lightning hits the ground and forms a ball that can move; it’s freaky looking. His idea was that Bill and Jo [Helen Hunt] had a daughter that became a storm chaser, and she was the main character. That’s why it’s really cool to see Daisy as the lead protagonist; there are a lot of themes at play in the new chapter that Dad would have wanted to incorporate in his version.
I met Glen and Daisy on the night they were filming the rodeo. I had just gotten settled into the hotel, only been in Oklahoma like an hour and a half, and they said, “The weather’s changing. We might need to move indoors. We’re gonna move your scene up. Let’s bring you in.” So, I was suddenly just going straight there. I wasn’t even scheduled to work that day, but because of the volatility of the actual weather in the area, they had to adapt and move on the fly.
It’s a physically demanding film. Dad said he got a couple of little nicks on his face when he was doing that scene where he’s climbing out on the back of the truck and there was debris flying everywhere. Things have gotten a little safer, just because the original was cutting edge for the effects. But the practical effects of the wind machine and this giant crane that simulates lightning take care of the acting for you in those action scenes, because your heart rate goes up. When you’re running against it, you have to pitch yourself at an angle, because it can knock you back a little bit. It was all very safe, but they figured out how to simulate it and it was intense. It’s the closest you can get [to a tornado] without experiencing it for real.
We’ve got plans to go see “Twisters” in the theater close to my hometown of Ojai. I want to sit at the back and watch the viewers. Because sometimes Dad and I would do that. When he had a movie coming out, he’d always be like, “We’re gonna go watch it in a theater too,” so he could see audience reactions. As a filmmaker, you want to see that kind of stuff, so we would duck into movies of his and sit at the back for a minute and watch. I’m gonna do that with Mum.
Reflecting on the past and looking to the future
As James Paxton continues to honor his father’s legacy through his work, he also carves out his own path in the entertainment industry. The journey of the Paxton family, intertwined with the legacy of “Twister,” serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring impact of storytelling and the bonds that connect us across generations. The release of “Twisters” not only brings a new chapter to a beloved film but also offers a heartfelt tribute to a remarkable actor and father.
