Tom Cruise was transformed beyond recognition with prosthetics and a padded costume to play wealthy oil tycoon Digger Rockwell in his new film Digger. While the initial makeup application took 6 hours every day, the process was reduced to under an hour thanks to a workflow Cruise developed with his team.
Appearing on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast on Friday, the actor said he realized that the filming schedule did not align with the time needed for sleep, filming and makeup. Cruise brought a blackboard to the makeup room and had the application time for each prosthetic measured with a stopwatch; he sped up the system through repeated practice. Although the team initially said it was impossible, the makeup time was reduced to under an hour.
Cruise said he was constantly sweating beneath the prosthetics during long scenes and developed portable cooling systems. The film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller, will be released in theaters on October 2. Cruise said they had been working with Iñárritu for 7 years and that the director’s artistic vision played a role in his decision to accept the project. He said he enjoys working with different directors and learning new things. He is also preparing for the sequel to Yıldırım Günleri (Days of Thunder), in which he will share the lead with Anne Hathaway.
Background
Cruise is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 2 news reports mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated September 16, 2026.