Patrick Stoner: So, you're in a BIG picture. In fairness, you told me during the APOLLO 13 interviews that TWISTER was going to be huge.
Bill Paxton: Let me tell you--I knew as soon as I READ the script that I was thrilled to be in this one. I KNEW we had a winner. As soon as I was cast, I got steeped in the lore--reading everything I could on tornadoes. I mean, I grew up in Texas, but that was 20 years ago. LAST year, in Fort Worth, they had hail the size of softballs. We're seeing more and more powerful storms, of all types, almost on a biblical level.
Stoner: There's also a cinematic in Twister: Many of us grew up with that incredible of image of the tornado in THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Paxton: I'll say. When you're a kid in the middle of the country, you think you just might get sucked right up into the sky like Dorothy. When I was a kid, they showed The Wizard of Oz every Easter. That tornado haunted me every time the storm clouds gathered. I've seen the dark clouds. I've seen funnels. I've heard that eerie quiet and the awful noise. I've had the tornado drills and heard the warning siren. That's a terror that doesn't quite leave you--not even after 20 years.
Stoner: And you chased some storms in preparation for this movie?
Paxton: Yeah, I went out with some tornado chasers in northern Texas, and we followed one storm right up until nightfall. That's when you stop, because when it's dark, you don't chase IT, it chases YOU.
Patrick Stoner: I understand that Jan De Bont [the director of TWISTER] had the whole film planned out in his head AND on paper even before the first day's shooting. How helpful was that?
Helen Hunt: It was crucial. Since the digital effects came later, we were absolutely dependent on Jan to let us know exactly where we were in the story and in our own heads.
Stoner: In your own heads?
Hunt: Right. Jan would say, "Look, THIS is where the film has been to this point. NOW, it's going to go over HERE." That's how we would know exactly how the pacing was going to be so we wouldn't be out of sync with the story's flow. He did something else too, and that's not as well known as are the wonderful digital effects that make up the tornadoes.
Stoner: What's that?
Hunt: He actually invented certain physical effects right on the set that created much of the same wind force and turmoil that would happen in real life. That gave us something to work THROUGH. When actors are only working with computer graphics, I can sort of smell the artificiality. It's just all too perfect, too neat. It's not like life. Think about it. You're out in a storm, with a tornado churning right there in front of you. Things are flying around--big things, little things, wind, rain, chaos galore. You're scrambling, stumbling, just this side of panic. You need to have something physical to work off of or it'll just feel too staged. You need to have TROUBLE getting through it. THAT was what made it work for me as an actress. THEN, you add the graphics, and it all works together. It's like any other kind of acting; you have to FEEL it to make an audience feel it.