Glen Powell rides into the eye of the storm as tornado wrangler Tyler Owens in “Twisters”

PHOTO CREDIT: “Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.”

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Glen Powell has always had an interest in joining the disaster thrill-ride, “Twisters,” since he caught wind of it.

He’d been keeping close tabs on the project while working with Joseph Kosinski for “Top Gun: Maverick,” as Kosinski was developing the story for “Twisters.” “Joe told me what an exciting movie this was going to be, with all these vivid characters, including a certain wild tornado-chasing cowboy, and all these amazing action sequences with different tornadoes,” Powell says.

Watch the trailer here:

The opportunity arose as he was working on another film, Powell recalls. “I was filming ‘Anyone But You’ in Australia when I got a call asking if I’d be interested in ‘Twisters’ and whether I would be open to doing a chemistry read with Daisy, who was already cast,” he says. 

Director Lee Isaac Chung thinks Powell is perfect for playing the charming rodeo star-turned-viral stormchaser. “Glen is so charismatic, interesting, and funny, you end up loving him even when he’s playing characters like Tyler who are cocky and big showboats,” Chung says. “But he’s also an extraordinary actor with great depth and he’s so good at letting that seep through and reveal itself almost effortlessly, without forcing it,” Chung explains.
What sealed the deal was an episode of the morning show Today that revealed another side of the veteran actor.  “Glen was on ‘Today’ with his parents, talking about his parents and their impact on his life, and I saw this layer of him that I wanted for this character, someone with real heart,” Chung says. “I knew then I wanted him on board.”

Powell also drew inspiration from another personal connection: the late Bill Paxton, who starred in the original ‘Twister’ film. Powell and Paxton worked together on the 2013 western “Red Wing.” “When I was first getting to know Bill, the two movies I talked with him the most about were Apollo 13 and ‘Twister’, both of which pushed the limits of practical effects and visual effects and required a lot from their actors in terms of research,” Powell says. “Bill helped me understand what it takes to make characters like Tyler feel grounded and real, but also cool and fun and interesting, all at the same time. I thought about Bill Paxton often while making ‘Twisters.’ It’s an impossible task to follow in his footsteps. But I hope people can see a little bit of his light emanating through the movie.”

All this experience and research led Powell to find the real strength in his character.  “I wanted to start out with my character presenting as exactly the guy you think he is, this self-promoting adrenaline junkie,” Powell says. “But then you realize there’s real depth to him. His team of storm chasers seem like this traveling circus of thrill seekers, but they share this complicated fascination with the unexplainable phenomenon that are tornadoes. They seem to have a casual, devil-may-care attitude, but they’re no dummies. They have deep respect for the awesome power of tornadoes and care about the people affected by the destruction they cause. They’re a band of misfits that have grown into a family that works together and takes care of each other … and those they find on their way.”

Catch heart-racing action as “Twisters” storms across Philippine cinemas on July 17.