OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)—Hollywood stars came to Bricktown Monday evening as the blockbuster film ‘Twisters’ held its red carpet premiere, and some of those stars found themselves starstruck when they got to meet members of the 4Warn Storm Team.
News 4’s Emily Sutton and Spencer Humphrey got to speak to the movie’s stars on the red carpet, before attending a private screen of the movie at Harkins Theaters in Bricktown Monday Night.
‘Twisters’ is a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster ‘Twister.’
Set in modern-day Oklahoma, ‘Twisters’ stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos whose character form an unlikely trio of storm chasers tasked with taming a catastrophic outbreak of tornados across Oklahoma.
4 Warn Storm Team meteorologists Emily Sutton, Damien Lodes and Mike Morgan all make appearances in ‘Twisters’ portraying themselves forecasting the fictional tornado outbreak on TV.
One of the film’s stars, Glen Powell, was starstruck himself when he met Sutton on the on the red carpet Monday night.
“Oh my God, Emily, so good to see you,” Powell told Sutton as the two greeted each other.
Powell told Sutton she served as a role model and source of inspiration for the movie’s cast and crew as production began in Oklahoma last year.
“The first person when we got on the ground here that everyone told us was the biggest celebrity, we needed to meet… was you,” Powell told Sutton.
Sutton and Lodes said being able to make appearances in the sequel to the original 1996 ‘Twister’ feels like a dream.
“[The original ‘Twister’] pretty much made us who we are,” Lodes said. “Like, we're in this job because of that movie. So to be here in the movie… I can't. I can't believe it.”
Along with Powell, ‘Twisters’ stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos.
Edgar-Jones, from London, and Ramos, from New York, were both strangers to Oklahoma until temporarily calling the state home as ‘Twisters’ filmed in Oklahoma for several months throughout 2023—during the height of Oklahoma’s severe storm season.
“Being a Brit, obviously my experience of weather is pretty normal and average,” Edgar-Jones told News 4. “There is not much exciting weather that happens. So actually being able to film here, immerse myself in the world and meet real people, meet real Oklahoman people and chasers… I mean, I embraced it completely.”
“I just—I didn't know anything about Oklahoma,” Ramos told News 4. “Being in Tornado Alley, I didn't even know there was a place called Tornado Alley. And, you know, I also I also learned about the resilience of the people here.”
The film’s producer Ashley Sandberg made an appearance at the premiere in Bricktown Monday.
She, too, felt privileged to share the room with Sutton.
“Oh Emily so good to see you I feel like we’re old friends now,” Sandberg told Sutton as the two greeted on the red carpet.
Sandberg said, what struck her the most about Oklahoma was learning “the Oklahoma standard” is a very real thing as she got to know the people of the state.
“It’s a really beautiful sense of community here,” Sandberg said. “I feel like everyone comes together. I feel like everyone came together in supporting us in making this movie. And after disasters happen, the communities come together to rebuild. And I think that's something really beautiful everyone can take away from that.”
You’ll see some familiar places depicted in twisters, most notably El Reno, where the film’s most intense scenes take place. El Reno’s famous water tower, downtown trolley and ‘Centre Theatre’ play integral roles in the film’s climax scene.
The film’s director, Lee Isaac Chung grew up in northwest Arkansas.
Chung told News 4 he wanted to make sure the movie accurately represented his home region.
“This story came along, and this script… and immediately I was interested in coming back,” Chung said. “Especially to do a big summer blockbuster film, and to do it here. It was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.”
‘Twisters’ premieres in theaters everywhere this Friday, July 19.
