TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe on ‘Twisters’ Cameo, New Album

With Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and the awesome might of Mother Nature out in front of the marketing for Twisters, many may not know about the additional treats swirling in Lee Isaac Chung’s legacy sequel to the original 1996 hit. Among Powell’s group of YouTube-streaming weather junkies are Brandon Perera, Katy O’Brien, Sasha Lane and, most exciting to music fans of the aughts and 2010s, Tunde Adebimpe, best known as the frontman for TV on the Radio. Adebimpe plays a technobabble-spewing weather weenie named Dexter, and while he doesn’t get tons of screen time, he kind of steals every scene he’s in.

Adebimpe, of course, is no newcomer to film, having starred in the 2001 indie Jump Tomorrow (based on a short completed at NYU) before his band made its first recordings. He also appeared in Jonathan Demme’s 2008 winner Rachel Getting Married (he was the guy Rachel was getting married to!), had a small role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, has appeared in many television series, records voice-over for animation, composes music (including for the PBS series City Island), and is an accomplished visual artist. (This is in addition to selling hundreds of thousands of albums and performing at international festivals and major venues in North America, though it has been a while since we’ve seen TV on the Radio on the Stage.)

His next big project is appearing in Disney +’s Star Wars: Skeleton Crew with Jude Law, Kerry Condon and Jaleel White (!) for showrunner John Watts. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with him via Zoom to discuss the Twisters shoot, the future of TV on the Radio, his art projects and his unending gratitude when anyone cares about his work.

No spoilers to those who haven’t seen it, but you get the biggest laugh line in the Twisters. Have you had a chance to see the movie with an audience?

Yes, I was at the premiere. It’s funny because you’ve done the line so many times, and you know what it’s leading to, then there’s that moment that was met with tons of laughter. You’re like “Oh, yes. This is funny.” It went over really well.

It’s a great moment because it is so rooted in your character, who is — and I say this with respect and love — a “weather weenie.” Do you geek out about weather in real life?

I do like storms. I like witnessing evidence of nature’s grandeur. It’s nice to feel small. I was not a weather weenie before my participation in this, though, but I did get to meet people that I refer to as “weather wizards” at NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration].

We were briefed about tornado season in Oklahoma. I met a man named Kevin Kelleher [of the National Severe Storms Laboratory], and I’ve got him in my phone now, plus another man named Sean Waugh and … well, I’ve got several major storm chasers and climate scientists on speed dial who have been very helpful to me. I can talk a bit now about wind shear and the magnitudes of tornadoes. 

In your travels in life, have you ever seen a tornado?

No, but in Oklahoma City, production got paused a few times because of major lightning storms. And I was definitely hoping some brave soul was out there shooting B-roll to save on special effects. I flew in with Glen Powell, and as we were landing in Oklahoma City, we looked out and saw fields of lightning shooting everywhere, and we both stared at one another thinking, “Uh, is this OK? Are we gonna make it?”

But everyone out in Oklahoma City — from the Uber driver to the folks at the hotel — everyone is a bit of a storm fanatic. Meteorologists are rock stars.

The movie does a good job of showing how storms are devastating to people, but also, “Hey, this is a blockbuster summer movie that is loads of fun.” Lots of that comes from the cast. 

That’s Isaac Chung. He’s come from independent films, working with emotions and something grounded and real. He’s so gifted in that way, plus he’s playing with this enormous toy box where he can have ILM [Industrial Light and Magic] create a tornado that tosses a city off the map. It’s great to watch him weave that together. 

It was definitely a risky move for the studio. Minari is wonderful, but there’s not too much in there that makes you think of action-adventure sequences and special effects. It’s a victory for smaller filmmakers who want to make bigger films. 

I think so, too. I’m reminded of Jon Watts — someone I knew for years before he made Spider-Man. He made TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me” video and then smaller projects that played at Sundance. I was at lunch with him when he said, “Yeah, I’m gonna pitch for Spider-Man,” and I remember thinking, “How could anybody let you do Spider-Man???” Then, he did it!

It’s great to have someone coming from that perspective. Isaac grew up loving blockbusters, but he still has his own personal style and feel for people. It’s a good combination to make a grounded human story mixed with horrifying catastrophe. 

You’ve been in a lot of movies and done major tours and festivals, but this is certainly the biggest production you’ve been part of. What were your observations coming into such an expensive shoot at this stage of your career?

The set ups for the major effects in the storms, at least for me, were done at the end of shooting. For the rest of the time, we were in teams in gigantic fields, hanging out and driving around on dirt roads. So, in a way, that felt like a very small movie; like a series of short films. The gigantic part got filled in later, at least for me. 

Now, that said, I’m a huge animation and film nerd, so I would regularly head over to Prairie Surf Studios and visit the special effects rooms. That’s when you realize, “Oh, there are airplane hangars full of props,” and you take in the scale. 

One does get the sense of camaraderie with the storm chasers. 

We had a lot of down time in Oklahoma City. There was a multiplex there, in the Bricktown neighborhood, and the cast saw everything that came through. The new Indiana Jones movie had just come out, and Glen was so psyched for it. Some of the cast — I don’t think Daisy [Edgar-Jones] or Katy [O’Brien] had ever seen an Indiana Jones movie. That was an, “Oh, I’m old!” moment. So we all went to go see the new one and, you know, it’s a big departure from the others.

We all got out of the theater, and the people who had never seen one before were like, “Wait, so, is Indiana Jones always a time traveler? Is he a time-traveling archaeologist?” We’re at dinner trying to explain who Indiana Jones is. and they were like, “Is he like Doctor Who with a bullwhip and hat? What is he?”

We also had a night when everyone went line dancing. I sat down that night and observed.

Due to the strike, we had a long break. We were about to wrap in July, but the strike happened so we had to come back in December. From 110-degree weather to 28-degree weather but still wearing shorts in all that water. But it was cool, we visited a lot of Christmas wonderlands and flea markets and went ice skating.

Who had the best figure skating moves in the company?

Anthony Ramos. He’s a very lithe and coordinated person.

OK, I’ve been tap dancing around a big question here. The last time TV on the Radio played was March 2019 at Madison Square Garden.

Absolutely, that was it.

And now it’s 2024.

It sure is.

As you know, that group has something of a following. And there are many who would eagerly spend a few dollars to see TV on the Radio live. Any chance of this happening?

Okay, well, first: The way I operate on Instagram is I have a post-it note. Then, I run into the burning shack of Instagram, I put it on a wall, and then I leave. I don’t like being there, but I understand it’s necessary. Anyway, Instagram will be where anything is announced.

However, I can say that I just wrapped up my own record. And that will be out … in the future. And you … I can say … you might have an opportunity to buy a ticket to something related to that, or something related to TV on the Radio … in a while. 

This will make many people happy.

I’m glad to hear that. I’m kind of a hermit. So I always appreciate hearing that anyone cares about what I do or what the band does. 

The band Phish covers one of your songs, “Golden Age.” They do a long, jammed-out version, and they do it a lot. Did you know they were going to do it before it happened?

No! We were playing shows, and people kept telling us, and I don’t think it really registered. Like the words “Phish is playing your song” didn’t make sense to me at first, but then, look, when you put something into the world, you don’t know how it will resonate or how it will come back to you. It’s always cool when bands do covers — and just funny to me. I mean, look, I’m in my late 40s, I can’t change my view. It’s still weird to me that anyone is listening to my stuff. Just recently someone told me that Third Eye Blind did “Wolf Like Me,” and it’s great. At another part in my life I may have been like, “Well, what does that sound like?!?” But honestly, it’s cool. 

I’ve been at Phish shows when they bust out “Golden Age,” and everybody goes nuts.

Did they do it at the Sphere?

They did do it at the Sphere!

Oh, wow, maybe that’s our in to the Sphere!

TV on the Radio at the Sphere feels like a natural to me.

Let it be known! We’ll play the Sphere!

Done! That’s the headline. Earlier today I mentioned to a friend I’d be talking to you, and without a beat, she goes: “Best Letterman appearance ever.” Just a reflex. Did you know immediately when you shot that in 2006 that you nailed it?

Onstage, I think I blanked out. Dave introduces you, and it’s one of those “use the Force” moments. You just take off your visor and go. We went to the bar Zebulon near our studio in Brooklyn that night to watch it, and I remember thinking, “Hey, we did it.” It was a little janky in places, but that’s how it was supposed to be, a little punk rock. The next day, though, Kyp [Malone] and I were on the subway and everyone was staring at us. We got out to the street and, again, everyone was staring at us. Everyone was super complimentary, but it was weird, it was an instant reminder that “oh, we were on the TV! We were everywhere.”

You said “use the Force” a moment ago, and you probably can’t say too much, but I know you are in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

I don’t know what I’m allowed to say, but I am in the show, in the whole series, which is coming out at the end of the year. But I don’t think I can say who I am. I feel like Lucasfilm can still delete anything from anywhere. But it’s wrapped now, and that’s how I met Isaac, he directed an episode. And Jon Watts is the creator with Christopher Ford, they brought me in. 

I was still, you know, vetted. They didn’t just tag me in. 

Do you wear a cool cloak or space makeup and play around with ships?

There’s all the stuff.

But I spent so much time looking into the special effects because I am such a production nerd. I had these deep-cut questions, and Watts pointed over to this unassuming guy by a monitor and said, “Talk to John Knoll.”

So I spent a lot of time pestering Knoll, who, you know, pretty much invented Photoshop and made every great special effect ever. I was hanging around the stop motion studio and Phil Tippett’s place. I was trying to keep it together while I also had my job to do. I haven’t seen the whole thing yet, but if I were my 10-year-old self getting ready to see Empire Strikes Back, my mind would explode. I think people will be into it, it’s very old-school filmmaking.

You mentioned you are limited on Instagram, but you know that Star Wars has a small percentage of the fandom that can be a little combative.

I am ready for that. I am ready to defend, to debate, to joke. Because, ultimately, what are you doing? It’s Star Wars. I don’t understand. Getting angry about this is not the best use of anyone’s time.