“It's surreal for me, for a lot of different reasons,” says the 30-year-old actor.
Regret Bill Paxton was a very young dad when he went to Oklahoma to chase tornadoes for Twisterin 1995. His son, James, was just over a year old and Bill's wife, Louise, brought their baby to visit him on the set.I was a little too young to create lasting memories, but there are some cool photos.”tell James Paxtonnow 30, in a Variety article.
Twenty years later, when Bill Paxton died following heart surgery on February 25, 2017, his son took up the torch and made an appearance in Twisterswhich has just been released in cinemas in France.
“It's surreal for me, for a lot of different reasons,” Told James Paxton on the sidelines of the film's premiere in Los Angeles a few days ago. The first time he saw Twisterhe was about ten years old and it was on cable.”Dad was making dinner and he called me and said, 'Hey, look, that's your old man on TV.“. Even today, “I often come across it… Twister is still there! It's a film that exudes something special, pure exhilaration. It's a film that literally takes you into the eye of a tornado!“
His appearance in the sequel, 20 years later, is something of a vast three-part homage, beginning with the western “Last Train to Fortune” where he takes on a role that Bill Paxton had planned to hold when the film was in development – and then abandoned – in the 1990s. James also released a nostalgic single “Count on Me” (his first song as a solo artist, Love, Pax) accompanied by a music video that intercuts footage of the young Paxton family with Super 8mm film of a 1970s road trip his father took with friends.
“It's been really hard, it's taken me a long time to be able to talk about the loss of my father, for me and my family. I wanted to do things that helped me keep his memory alive and feel as connected to him as possible. I had to invest a lot in art to cope, to get through it, because there were times when I didn't know how to continue in this career being me. I just miss my mentor, my hero, who is no longer here to see it.”
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In the process, the young actor confesses to having taken ““a second to think” to his participation in Twisters“just because of the emotional context and the weight of it, because of how important Dad was in the original… How do you make a fun cameo for the fans, a nod that's representative of his spirit? I love paying homage to him, but I know he wanted to make sure that I was making my own way as an actor. So this cameo is for him and for the fans of Twister. I thought it was really cool of them to find a way to incorporate me into it. I wanted to be a conduit for Dad's spirit. I wish he was the one appearing in this new chapter instead of me, but I'm happy to do it.“