That time ‘Twister’ star Bill Paxton picked me up at the airport in a truck

When your job is to meet famous faces , you often have to try and remember that stars are people, too.

And then there are those rare times when the people you meet just happen to be stars.

That's what happened when Bill Paxton − the late, great Bill Paxton of "Apollo 13," the "Alien" franchise, TV's "Big Love" and so much more − picked me up at the airport in a pickup truck.

Doubtful this needs to be said, but for the record: Celebrities generally do not pick reporters up at the airport, let alone in a pickup truck. But, as anyone who knew him will tell you, that was Bill.

Paxton memories gathered like swirling storm clouds when I heard that director Lee Isaac Chung was ready to release "Twisters" ( in theaters Friday ), his take on romance and atmospheric mayhem set once again in Oklahoma.

It all came roaring back.

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Bill Paxton created lasting memories for anyone he encountered

On an early summer day in 1995, I boarded a plane in Los Angeles bound for Oklahoma City. My destination: Wakita, about two hours north hard along the Kansas border.

Director Jan de Bont, fresh off his big action hit "Speed," was in Wakita (population about 500 that summer, even smaller today) filming "Twister," the story of Paxton and his crew of storm chasers bonding over their passion for Mother Nature's fury and often each other.

The set was astounding. Block after small-town block bearing the signature destructive look of a tornado's wrath. Computer graphics, such as they were in 1995, helped create the faux tornadoes on screen, but much of the rest was three-dimensional movie-set magic.

The cast also was pretty epic. There was Helen Hunt as Dr. Jo Harding, Paxton's tornado-obsessed estranged wife; a now who's who of dirt-road warrior compadres including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Todd Field and Alan Ruck; and their tornado-chasing nemesis played by Cary Elwes.

But Paxton was the glue. And there he was, quite impossibly, my ride from the airport, sporting jeans, cowboy boots and that big grin. He shot me a welcoming "Howdy," and ushered me into the cab of his truck as we headed off to tiny Wakita.

I'd be fibbing if I said I recalled every detail of our conversation. Rather, what remains is a memory of how normal it all felt, how easy, how unpretentious.

We talked about the movie, sure, but also about one of my oldest friends who also hailed from Fort Worth, Texas. That drew a big kith-and-kin grin from the actor, who was not acting.

But my experience was not remarkable. Paxton − who died from heart surgery complications at age 61 on the eve of the Oscars in 2017 − was that way with everyone. Unfiltered, genuine charm.

Glen Powell, star of 'Twisters,' recalls a tip the 'Twister' star gave him years ago

"Bill was so singular," says Glen Powell, 35, who plays a Paxton-like storm chaser in "Twisters" and considered the older actor a friend and mentor.

Powell says Paxton is present in "Twisters" in two ways. His son James Paxton has a small if memorable role in the new movie as a pushy motel customer who complains about his Wi-Fi as a storm is raging outside. And Powell brought to the set daily an old trick his fellow Texan taught him years ago.

"We were shooting (the 2013 film) 'Red Wing' together, and he told me to do something that I now use on every movie I'm on, which is just before you shoot (an outdoor scene) you close your eyes and look at the sun for a bit," he says. "That acclimates your eyes to the sun, which means you can then keep them open longer during the shot without squinting."

Powell pauses. "Every time I closed my eyes on ‘Twisters’ and looked at the sun, I thought of Bill. It was such a great way to have him on the set with me."

It seems anyone who encountered Paxton has stories to share.

"I will say he was the ladies' favorite character," says Linda Wade, who helped found Wakita's small Twister the Movie Museum after the production wrapped. "He was very generous, too. He'd play football with the kids in town, and then he gave us that football for the museum. Then when ('Twister') came out (in 1996), he sent us his personal 'Twister' pinball machine, too. He was just super, super nice."

As well as super committed to his craft, says de Bont, who himself has been reflecting on those old days as he does publicity in conjunction with the recent “Twister” re-release on UltraHD Blu-ray.

"Bill was our leader, really," he says wistfully. "His energy was incredible, that spontaneity, that humor, all of that was so important to our movie."

De Bont laughs. "I remember he loved doing the daily weather forecast for us all," he says. "He loved the landscape we were in, and the power of the tornadoes, how the cornfields one day are so beautiful and maybe the next day they're simply gone."

Bill Paxton showed up early to the ‘Twister’ set and embedded himself with tornado experts

Paxton's character, Bill "The Extreme" Harding, felt similarly, which drove a dedication to inhaling the details of storm chasing that impressed tornado experts.

"Bill came out to Oklahoma a month before everyone else, and I found him a corner in my office (at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma) and he just got to work," says Kevin Kelleher, who served as a tornado expert on both "Twister" and now "Twisters."

"He quickly got the gist of the science and kept asking us all these questions, it was impressive," says Kelleher.

But what impressed the scientist more was Paxton's humility.

Excited about his new Hollywood friendship, Kelleher and his family took to renting past Paxton movies from the local Blockbuster. Some of these often-brief appearances left the family perplexed.

"I'd say something like, 'Bill, what was up with that movie?' " recalls Kelleher. "Now, he could have taken offense. But he said, 'Look Kevin, when you're starting off, you just need to take what you can.' "

Kelleher laughs softly at the memory. So I share my airport pickup truck tale. He laughs harder.

"The nicest guy you'd ever meet," he says. "And, yes, the kind of guy who would pick you up at the airport in his truck. That was Bill."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: That time ‘Twister’ star Bill Paxton picked me up at the airport in a truck