Warning: This article contains spoilers for Twisters.
Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones ultimately did not share an on-screen smooch in Twisters, and it’s all thanks to Steven Spielberg.
While fans filmed footage of Powell, 35, and Edgar-Jones, 26, locking lips amid filming a scene at an airport last year, the take did not make it into the movie, which was released on Friday, July 19.
When asked about the decision to omit the kiss from the film, Edgar-Jones revealed, “I think it was a Spielberg note, wasn’t it?” (Spielberg served as an executive producer of the film.)
“I think it stops the film feeling too cliched actually,” Edgar-Jones continued during a Saturday, July 20, interview with Collider. “I think there’s something really wonderful about it, feeling like there’s a sort of continuation. Like, this isn’t the end of their story, and they’re kind of united by their shared passion.”
Powell agreed with his costar’s comment. “I also think this movie is not about them finding love, it’s about returning Kate to the thing that she loves, which is storm chasing, right?” Powell said of Edgar-Jones’ character, Kate Carter. “And so that’s what you have at the end of the movie. They share this thing. Her passion is reinvigorated, her sense of home is reinvigorated.”
Powell noted that a kiss between his and Edgar Jones’ characters would feel “sort of unrepresentative of the right goal at the end of the movie.” He added, “It’s a good Spielberg note. It’s why Spielberg, you know, that kid’s still in this game. It’s amazing.”
When the scene did not make the cut, Powell joked to Entertainment Weekly on Friday that he was “taking a little offense that they didn’t want to use it.” He added, “Maybe it’s just my abilities, I don’t know.”
Director Lee Isaac Chung noted that he tried the kiss, but it was “very polarizing.” He clarified that it wasn’t “because of their performance of the kiss.”
“This [no-kiss shot] was the other option that I had filmed on the day, and I got to say, I like it better,” Chung said. “I think it’s a better ending. And I think that people who want a kiss within it, they can probably assume that these guys will kiss someday. And maybe we can give them privacy for that. In a way, this ending is a means to make sure that we really wrap things up with it in a celebratory, good way.”
The film serves as a sequel to the 1996 movie and centers around retired tornado chaser Kate, who teams up with social media superstar Tyler Owens (Powell) as multiple systems cover central Oklahoma.
As for what’s next for Powell, he exclusively shared in the latest issue of Us Weekly that he hopes to keep living the dream for as long as possible.
“I want to keep doing this job, and I hope they keep letting me,” he said in the brand-new issue of the revamped Us. “That’s why I wake up and take this job seriously. I [was] an unemployed actor for a really, really long time, so I know what it’s like to dream of [being a working actor] and not be able to do it. As long as I can stay in the game, I’ll be happy.”
