Paul Scheer has a small part in “Twisters,” but the actor managed to make an outsized impression on theatergoers after a lie about being a “legacy character” took off on social media. As the actor explained to Jon Lovett on the “Lovett or Leave It” podcast, his original bit making the claim took off so much that he just started going along when asked about it.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, [I’m the] the only legacy character.’ And then I have other people like, ‘He’s lying. He’s lying.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, of course I’m lying,’” Scheer said.
The story began while Scheer was doing red-carpet interviews for the film ahead of its release. Due to his small role in the movie, he didn’t think there would be a lot of interest in his character, but he wanted to be enthusiastic about the film. So, despite spending just hours on set, he claimed that the camaraderie was great and Glen Powell was so wonderful to work with.
Then he found himself telling “Entertainment Tonight” something new.
“They’re like, ‘What was it like to be a part of this ‘Twisters’ world?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s not my first time. My mom was actually pregnant during the first ‘Twister.’ And that was me. That was me. And the director was like, ‘We need to find the kid that was in that pregnant woman’s belly and put him in the movie,”” Scheer detailed.
“‘And they did. And that’s how they got it, that’s how I got in the movie. So I’m the only legacy character. I’m the only one,’” Scheer added, describing his lie. “And for some reason that took off on TikTok. Now, ‘Twister’ came out in 1994. So, you know, and I thought it was a pretty obvious thing.” Scheer was born in 1976.
“And so I have done interviews where people are like, ‘And you’re the only legacy character.’ And then, I don’t correct it anymore,” Scheer said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, the only legacy character.’ And then I have other people like, ‘He’s lying. He’s lying.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, of course I’m lying.’”
Earlier in the interview, Scheer revealed that he only got the part after he’d just happened to be on a plane with the movie’s director and several members of the crew — which he didn’t know, but he’d noticed they all had the screenwriting software Final Draft open on their computers.
The actor had traveled to Oklahoma to shoot a Super Bowl commercial when his agent called and said that, after that flight, “Twisters” director Lee Isaac Chung knew he was in the state and wanted to write a part for him into the movie, which was described as a “Netflix series.”
“I’m like, ‘All right, cool.’ I was like, ‘Twisters.’ I didn’t know,” Scheer said. “And then all of a sudden I see it’s like a $150 million movie that they’re like, they shut down the Oklahoma City airport for this scene that they wrote for me to do with Glenn and Daisy and everybody in the movie.”
“And it was like, again, I didn’t think about it. I didn’t know,” Scheer continued. “And then all of a sudden, more than anything I’ve ever done in my life, everyone saw ‘Twisters.’ To a point that it was like, my phone was blowing up. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what it would be like to be in a Marvel movie.’”
You can watch the entire interview with Paul Scheer in the video above.
