The late Bill Paxton‘s son, James Paxton, is opening up about his involvement in the upcoming Twisters film.
“It’s really a cameo, so it’s an Easter egg for the fans of Dad and the original,” James, 30, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Thursday, July 11. “I did this one for Dad.”
Twisters — which hits theaters July 19 — serves as a sequel to the 1996 smash hit Twister starring James’ father and Helen Hunt. (Bill died in 2017 at the age of 61, suffering a fatal stroke days after undergoing heart surgery.)
James joins Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and a star-studded cast in the highly anticipated sequel, which follows competing teams of storm chasers caught in the middle of storm season in Oklahoma.
Us’ Complete Guide to Summer’s Biggest Blockbuster Movies
While speaking to EW, James revealed that his agents sent him on an audition for the movie, noting,”I had to read for a role.”
When he “didn’t really hear anything” from the team right away, James figured he didn’t get the gig. “I had made peace with, ‘Oh, I guess maybe it’s not going to work out,’” he explained. “And then, I heard from my team that they were offering a role.”
He added, “It took me a little bit of time to process it, just given the context of my dad and his significance in the original and him not being here. It’s an emotional thing.”
James said taking the project “wasn’t something that I could really decide immediately,” especially given the “magnitude” of the connection to his late father.
“I wanted to be a conduit for his spirit there and cheer everyone in this production on to success because I know he would be,” James explained. “I wanted to do something that really honors his presence in this new chapter and really do something for him.”
With “a lot of amazing people” involved in the production, joining the team was a no-brainer. “It ended up feeling like the right thing to do, to be representative of Dad there,” James said.
Most Shocking Celebrity Deaths of All Time
Filming the storm scenes was just as “crazy” and “wild” as fans might expect. James described the adrenaline rush of simulating the tornadoes with wind machines.
“My character runs away from a tornado that’s coming towards this motel, and they turn on these crazy wind machines,” he added. “They fly debris at you. There’s a giant crane light that starts to simulate lightning, and they’ve got rain machines, and it’s wild. I mean, it kind of takes care of the acting for you because you feel like you’re really in a tornado situation. It was exhilarating.”
The project gave James a deeper appreciation for his dad’s career, which included roles in Aliens (1986), Tombstone (1993), True Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995) and Titanic (1997). “I didn’t really understand the full extent of what that meant and what his job really entailed,” he said, adding that he was around 10 years old when he started watching his dad’s movies.
Five years after his death, Bill’s family partially reached a settlement in 2022 with an anesthesiologist medical group. The actor’s loved ones sued for negligence, but the medical group denied having any responsibility in Bill’s death.
