'Twisters' actors talk about being swept up in 'profound' mysteries of tornadoes

Glen Powell said he was surprised to learn how much scientists still don't know about tornadoes, Daisy Edgar-Jones casually dropped the term mesocyclone, and Anthony Ramos called the first swirling monstrosity his character encounters "one of the sickest sequences I've seen in all of cinema."

Given the name and topic of the movie, it was probably inevitable, but the cast and crew of "Twisters" couldn't stop talking about the weather — learning all about real-life storms, fleeing from them on location in the Sooner State or getting battered by water machines, prop debris and jet engine fans to re-create them on film — during the eagerly awaited standalone sequel's Oklahoma City premiere.

"The weather here was like something I never experienced," Ramos told The Oklahoman on the OKC red carpet, where the Brooklyn, New York, native looked dapper in a black cowboy hat.

"Here, you just don't know. It's a clear day, and the next thing you know 10, 15 minutes later, you're like, 'Wow, there's overcast (skies), and the wind's blowing right now. What's happening? Nobody knew this was gonna happen.' It's unpredictable."

The long-awaited follow-up to the 1996 blockbuster "Twister" stars Edgar-Jones as Kate Carter, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. A Sapulpa native, she is lured back into storm season on the open plains by her friend, Javi (Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new tracking system.

Out in the field in the midst of record tornadic conditions, they cross paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), a charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his rowdy crew.

"I'd never been on this side of a jet engine. You know, it's a different experience. I will say, we had the best special effects team in the world on this movie ... to create a really extreme ride for audiences," Powell said Monday.

"But we really got hit with every element that Oklahoma could muster: We got hit with dust and debris and rogue furniture shot at us."

Who attended the OKC premiere of the eagerly awaited movie 'Twisters?'

Along with the movie's star trio, director Lee Isaac Chung, executive producer Ashley Jay Sandberg and storm consultant Kevin Kelleher celebrated the impending release of the summer tentpole movie by walking the red carpet Monday night at the special invitation-only screening at Harkins Bricktown 16 theater in downtown OKC.

Other attendees included U.S. Sen. James Lankford, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, OKC Mayor David Holt, "Reservation Dogs" star Lane Factor and frontman Max Rainer of the acclaimed Tulsa-based folk-rock band Wilderado, who has a cameo in the film and a song on the soundtrack.

Although he hails from Arkansas, Chung championed Oklahoma as the right place to make "Twisters." Not only did the filmmaker grow up on a farm just across the border from Westville, Oklahoma, but he also previously filmed his Academy Award-winning semi-autobiographical immigrant drama "Minari" in the Tulsa area in 2019.

"I was just eager to come back here and make something. ... To spend a lot of last year — spring, summer and then again in December, so just to be here through various seasons, even during tornado season — amongst a lot of people who are very supportive of us, that was great," Chung said at the OKC premiere.

With an estimated budget of $200 million, principal photography on "Twisters" got underway in Oklahoma City on May 8, 2023 — right in the middle of storm season. A two-time Oscar nominee for his deeply personal "Minari," Chung recalled that his family had their first encounter with a tornado just weeks after moving to rural Lincoln, Arkansas, in 1996, the same year that the original "Twister" roared into theaters.

"Being in this place, during storm season, most people here are not fazed by it. And I think I grew up and ultimately felt unfazed by tornado watches and incoming storms. But we had a chance to really capture a lot of the beauty of what was happening overhead. And hopefully, people will see that we really treated that with a lot of love," Chung told The Oklahoman.

What did the cast and crew of 'Twisters' learn about tornadoes while making the movie?

Throughout 60 days of principal photography, "Twisters" engaged with multiple communities statewide, including OKC, El Reno, Chickasha, Midwest City, Spencer, Kingfisher, Calumet, Hinton, Fairview, Okarche, Kremlin, Burbank and Pawhuska.

"We were all over the state, and it was a wild ride. ... We shot 75% of this movie outside in the fields, on the dirt roads. That last day, I remember we worked from sunrise to sundown, we were watching the clouds and the beauty of the surroundings. And we were all feeling sad that this was the last day. And I'm always gonna remember that day, that we really just fell in love with the beautiful landscape," Chung told The Oklahoman.

Looking back on the filming of "Twisters," Powell, a proud Texan, said he couldn't imagine making the movie anywhere else but the Sooner State.

"We just got such an education on what, not only the original 'Twister' meant to this community, but when I think of storm chasing in general, it's such a beautiful thing. This sort of cowboy scientist aspect ... is really singular. And I really can't wait to unleash this thing on the world, because I really think people are gonna have a newfound respect for all of it," Powell said.

But the one-time University of Texas at Austin student said he was surprised to learn how much scientists still don't know about tornadoes.

"The mystery around this thing is pretty profound," Powell said.

How did British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones embrace Oklahoma's stormy weather?

A London native, Edgar-Jones didn't have much Oklahoma experience before she traveled to the American Heartland to film the new event movie. Once she arrived in the Sooner State, though, the Golden Globe-nominated actress quickly became line-dancing addict and a weather enthusiast.

"Being here, being out in the big sky, experiencing extreme weather, we had one day where an entire massive mesocyclone cloud formed behind us. And it looked like a spaceship. Just seeing that cloud and being like, 'Wow, that's our natural world,' it's so amazing," she said.

After filming wrapped on "Twisters," the British actress even reunited in Oklahoma with Powell and their co-star Brandon Perea on a whirlwind hunt with some of the storm chasers they met while making the movie.

"We've become really good friends with a bunch of chasers, and ... we went chasing a couple months ago. We followed a storm all the way to Kansas, but we didn't see any tornadoes, though. I'm definitely gonna come back and try again — from a very safe distance," she told The Oklahoman.

"I do love weather. Being a Brit, we talk about the weather all the time, so now I know a little bit more about what I'm talking about, which is good."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Twisters' cast, crew experienced severe Oklahoma weather in real life