How Glen Powell Turned Twisters into a Cultural Phenomenon—and Made His Dog Brisket a Star

Explore key developments on How Glen Powell Turned Twisters into a Cultural Phenomenon—and Made His Dog Brisket a Star in this special report.

Director Lee Isaac Chung insisted on shooting Twisters on location across central Oklahoma during active severe weather season. The cast and crew did not sit on air-conditioned soundstages in Atlanta or London. They endured 100-degree heat, red-dirt gale winds, and sudden real-world tornado sirens that shut down production multiple times.

Powell stepped into the role of Tyler Owens, a self-styled "tornado wrangler" broadcasting severe weather chases to millions on YouTube. The character could easily have turned into an obnoxious caricature of modern influencer vanity. Instead, Powell infused Owens with genuine meteorological curiosity and working-class charm, creating an immediate foil to Daisy Edgar-Jones’s scientifically cautious meteorologist, Kate Carter. Powell performed his own stunts wherever safety regulations permitted, riding the beds of customized chase trucks and taking the brunt of jet-engine-powered debris fans.

The dynamic between Powell, Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos worked because it grounded catastrophic visual effects in authentic workplace camaraderie. Ramos, who played field reconnaissance coordinator Javi, spent weeks sharing dust-caked trailers with Powell between setups. That close-quarters isolation in rural Oklahoma set the stage for an unexpected domestic development.