Helen Hunt Recalls Injury Before Filming ‘Twister’

Actor Helen Hunt recently shared a memorable incident from the production of the 1996 American disaster thriller film ‘Twister’, just ahead of the standalone sequel ‘Twisters’. Recalling the challenges, Hunt revealed how she injured her knee right before filming began, People reported.

“A week or two before, I remember sitting in Oklahoma with ice on my knee and calling my agent and going, ‘Am I going to be able to pull this off?'” said Hunt, 61. “So, for me, it was just like ‘Run anyway’ because I had no other choice.”

Reflecting on the physically demanding nature of ‘Twister’, Hunt added, “It’s all for the best that there wasn’t the technology to do it all on your laptop. Instead, they just pummeled the s— out of us, and it looks amazing.”

Hunt highlighted the difference between acting with practical effects versus modern CGI. “So much of acting now is you’re looking at a piece of tape, or you’re looking at a green screen, or you’re looking at dots on someone’s face, and someone has to tell you, ‘Well, what’s going to be here later is this thing’s going to come around the corner.'”

“A lot of what we reacted to was really happening,” the Oscar and four-time Emmy winner explained about her work on ‘Twister’. “And while it made it messier, it made it easier to act.”

Director Jan de Bont supported this approach, explaining to the outlet that he “filmed the actors at the same time, the same moment” as the action. “They don’t react to, ‘And now fall down …’ It doesn’t work. This was all real,” added the 80-year-old director.

‘Twister’, co-starring the late Bill Paxton, became a major success, earning over $494 million at the worldwide box office. Directed by de Bont, the film was executive produced by Steven Spielberg and written by the late Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. The highly anticipated sequel, ‘Twisters’, is set to hit theaters on July 19, as reported by People.