The death of Bill Paxton at the age of 61 in February, 2017, sparked an outpouring of grief that highlighted why the actor was so beloved by so many moviegoers.
Three of Bill Paxton’s biggest fans were comedians Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine and Anders Holm, the trio behind Comedy Central’s “Workaholics.” They were such devotees of Paxton’s performance as Private William Hudson in James Cameron’s “Aliens” that they even named their new Netflix comedy “Game Over, Man!” after one of his lines from the iconic 1986 action extravaganza.
Anders Holm, who also wrote “Game Over, Man,” admitted as much to me when I spoke to him over the phone last week about the film. When I checked to make sure that the reference was intentional, Holm responded, “It is a Bill Paxton line from ‘Aliens.’ We all love Bill Paxton.”
This then provoked Holm to admit that even though none of the three actors “got to work with him,” they did meet him at Comic-Con one year, where he gave them some sterling acting advice.
“We were crossing paths in the hallway and we said to him, ‘Bill Paxton! Any acting advice?’ And he said, ‘Always stay in character. Never try to be funny.’ And then he just walked off.”
There’s even more to this story, though, because it turns out that Anders Holm later had a drunken encounter with “The Terminator,” “Predator 2,” “Twister,” “Apollo 13” and “Nightcrawler” actor.
“Then later that night I caught him at a party. I was super drunk. And was like, ‘Dude, you made it. You were a character actor and now you’re a movie star.’ He was drunk enough to go, ‘Yeah, man. Thank you.’ Because he had a journey, and he was one of the best actors to do it. He was one of a kind.”
You can judge for yourself whether “Game Over, Man” honors Bill Paxton’s legacy when the film is released on March 23.
