Tom Cruise says he cut the time needed to turn him into the oil tycoon of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Digger” from six hours to under one, using a chalkboard, a stopwatch and a challenge to his makeup team.
Cruise described the process on a Friday episode of Travis and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast. “The first time we did the makeup, it took six hours,” he said. Shooting days ran 12 hours, and he needed at least six hours of sleep, which left little room in the chair. He timed each prosthetic piece against the clock and asked the hair and makeup crew to beat it. His method, he said, is to study a system and find a more efficient way to run it.
The shorter routine did not make the work comfortable. Cruise said the prosthetics and fat suit left him sweating through long, carefully choreographed takes, so he devised fixes that included “cooling machines.”
In the film, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a gray-haired, wrinkled and heavier oil magnate. After causing an environmental disaster, Rockwell is ordered by the U.S. president, played by John Goodman, to repair the damage while casting himself as humanity’s savior. The role is Cruise’s first heavy character transformation since Les Grossman in 2008’s “Tropic Thunder.”
Warner Bros. releases the film Oct. 2. The reported $125 million production was shot in VistaVision with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and also stars Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons and Michael Stuhlbarg. Cruise said he has worked with Iñárritu on the project for seven years.
Early reaction has split. Anonymous accounts from a March test screening praised Cruise’s performance and compared the satire to “Dr. Strangelove.” One attendee called the film overstuffed and chaotic but still fascinating. Cruise has not earned an acting Oscar nomination since 2000.
