James Paxton took time to 'process' being on Twisters set without late dad Bill Paxton

James Paxton found it "emotional" being on the set of 'Twisters'.

The 30-year-old actor makes a brief appearance in the sequel to 1996's 'Twister' - which starred his late father Bill Paxton - and he admitted it took him a long time to "process" his feelings when he was on set.

He told Entertainment Weekly: “It took me a little bit of time to process it, just given the context of my dad and his significance in the original and him not being here.

“It’s an emotional thing. It wasn’t something that I could really decide immediately, It took a little time just to process it, just the magnitude of it.”

James "wanted to be a conduit" for the spirit of his dad - who died in 2017 aged 61 after suffering a stroke following heart surgery - and to "cheer everyone in this production on to success" because he knew that's what Bill would be doing.

He added: "I wanted to do something that really honours his presence in this new chapter and really do something for him.

"And I realised there’s a lot of amazing people involved in this that I would love to get to know. And so it ended up feeling like the right thing to do, to be representative of Dad there.”

The 'Cleaner' actor loves being able to pay homage to his dad in his work and feels connected to him when he's on a set.

James - who previously played an alternate version of John Garrett, his father’s 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' character - said: “It’s a tricky thing, because my dad was my best friend, and so I never shy away from talking about him and celebrating him.

“But also, when you’re pursuing the same thing, you want to try to set yourself apart. I always love homaging him in things like Twisters, and did it in 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', but I know that the projects he was also really proud of were the ones that I was able to do that had nothing to do with him.

“He’s been gone for most of my career, unfortunately. But he got to see 'Eyewitness', and he told me, ‘You’ve got a real ticket to ride,’ which was his way of saying, ‘You got a ticket to the big leagues; you can go play now, but you got to take it seriously and study and buckle down.’

"And so now I feel closest to him when I’m working on sets. I just think back on all of the amazing work that he got to do, and that’s where I really feel him.

"I mean, I feel him all the time, but especially then.

"I kind of had a moment on the 'Twisters' set where I walked off, and I went, ‘God, can you believe this?’ And I was talking to myself, but also to him, in just a little private moment that I had."