One of Glen Powell’s most treasured possessions is what he calls his “icon wisdom” journal; a book he has had throughout his career in which scribbles down the most important takeaways from the projects, filmmakers and actors he has worked with.
Naturally, the journal is chock-full of wisdom 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 revealed one of his favourite bits of advice from the superstar; Cruise does not just pick great roles, he picks great projects and then makes the roles great.
It is something Powell has been consciously trying to do since the $1.5 billion box-office success of Maverick (2022) changed his life overnight (not to mention being credited with reviving the theatrical rom-com with Anyone but You, and his incredibly slick turn in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man) and eventually led him to sign on for the upcoming Twisters, a standalone sequel to the 1996 blockbuster disaster epic.
Glen Powell in a still from ‘Twisters’ | Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic
Directed by Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, and also starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Fresh,Where the Crawdads Sing) and Anthony Ramos (Hamilton,In The Heights), the film stars Powell as Tyler Owens, a brazen but charismatic storm-chasing social media star who crosses paths with meteorologist Kate Cooper (Edgar-Jones) and her colleague Javi (Ramos) who are testing a new tornado tracking system. As storm season converges upon central Oklahoma, the trio are caught in the fight of their lives as they seek to escape — and possibly try to tame — multiple unpredictable tornadoes that will destroy anything in their way.
Why Daisy was Type A
Much to the surprise of his Twisters co-stars, Powell winks and says that both of them are now part of his journal after shooting wrapped on the ambitious project.
Glen Powell holds his dog Brisket alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones as they attend a premiere for ‘Twisters’ in Los Angeles, California | Photo Credit: MARIO ANZUONI
“One thing that I took away from Daisy for my journal is the way that she breaks down a character. 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. (laughs). But it’s fantastic how she tackled her character in such a deliberate nature being part of a film where there’s so much happening on the effects and stunts front,” he remarks lightly.
Powell adds, “Anthony, on the other hand... he 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.”
“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,” he quips.
Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones in a still from ‘Twisters’ | Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic
Much has been made of the chemistry between Powell and Edgar-Jones during the press tour (fans clearly still have not learnt from the brouhaha surrounding his equation with Sydney Sweeney during the Anyone but You promos...) which has only added to the anticipation surrounding the film.
It’s brat summer for the trio
But what helped them bond them on set was Edgar-Jones’ impeccable taste in music as they spent long hours shooting inside cars on open landscapes, so much so that she became the resident DJ on set (her new nickname doing the rounds is DJ EJ); what were they listening to?
Anthony Ramos, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell attend the ‘Twisters’ European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square | Photo Credit: GARETH CATTERMOLE
“Well, first of all, we all love the Twisters soundtrack in itself. 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,” Daisy muses.
Daisy Edgar-Jones in a still from ‘Twisters’ | Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin E
The Normal People star, who was recently spotted at the Glastonbury music festival with her friends, actors Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan and others, goes on, “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! We were just doing the viral Apple dance earlier today...”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Daisy Edgar-Jones (@daisyedgarjones)
As with any sequel, there are tributes aplenty in Twisters, something all the actors, as fans of the original, are very excited about. “Some of the shots from the original Twister movie have been recreated in this one, along with other several little homages. For instance, Daisy’s character of Kate is reminiscent of who Bill Paxton played in the 1996 version — she’s reinvigorated and brought back into this world that she left after a devastating encounter — and even gets to also reenact one of his iconic dialogues,” says Powell, who is a self-confessed movie trivia buff.
“What I learnt from my time on Top Gun: Maverick is that when you’re making a franchise film, you have got to find elements of the original that you honour, 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 honour the feeling of the original movie, the community of storm-chasers, and update this without being too derivative. And I think we have succeeded,” he grins.
Daisy is quick to chime in, “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!”
How Steven Spielberg batted for Anthony
Anthony Ramos in a still from ‘Twisters’ | Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic
For stage actor and singer Ramos, one of the most memorable moments during his Twisters experience was when executive producer Steven Spielberg asked him not to use a Southern accent for his role; it made the actor feel that, “it was possible for a kid from the hood to go to study meteorology, be this brilliant meteorologist and storm chaser. This is something that a kid like me could do.”
Ramos says that 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 releases July 18 in theatres
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