Tom Cruise talks new movie, 'Digger'

Oh, that's right. Digger tape. Take two. Tom Cruise is 64. If it seems like he's been making movies forever, he has your status as a movie star precedes Ghostbusters. It precedes Madonna. It precedes the thriller video. You were a star before all those things happen. Tom is a real gift and I I dreamed of a life to be able to do this the rest of my life as a kid and every day I'm thinking, you know what? I can't control what's going to happen. But what I can control is I can just do the best I can. Recently, that's meant going off a cliff for a Mission Impossible stunt. Now, Cruz is taking big swings and big leaps in a different way. You're anyone can get a home run. Triples is what's impressive. Triples requires hustle. The every day I'm hustling. Tom Cruise is playing the title role in Digger. He's a swaggy, eccentric, unrepentant oil man who causes a global apocalypse in a daring dark comedy from two time Oscar winning director Alejandro Gonzalez and Yara to Glacier over there in Greenland. It shifts five ft down this desk in front of me. He's bigger than five ft. What do you want me to shut down a billion dollar platform? This is a story. It is about power and greed trying to control things that are just you can't control. It's not gonna happen. I'm just gonna point out that your transition in this movie from looking like what you look like now to a version of what I look like took you six hours of makeup and prosthetics with Riz Ahmed is a truth telling scientist. Project Hail Mary's Sandra Hewler as Digger's sister and business partner and John Goodman as the U. S. President. I play a guy who has quite intimidating, scary boss and has to find a way of standing up to him. Mr President, 55 minutes ago, my company for me, the explosion on our rig causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. At least for his first few days, I didn't have to act. It was intimidating to be on set with him and with him as Digger Rockwell. There was this hurricane of this kind of operatic character coming at you 100 miles an hour. He wants to know what other people think we could collaborate on that very much. So we were creating things together. The mood on set was so special and always positive and playful. It could have gone on forever. That's my memory of it. We really had a lot of fun. It's illegal to be in a bad mood around because what's he gonna do next? Straighten up, man. You can act better than this. I mean, him I've seen for years since we were kids. And finally, you know, to be able to work together was amazing. There are women present. Did you know, john, that he had his eye on you from way back when? Oh, baby, I had my eye on you, john. Digger puts cruises ability to entertain and to inhabit a challenging character back on the cinematic map, maybe into an Oscar conversation. I'm not gonna kill you. People would do that for me. That joking sorta cruise first heard about Digger in death eight years ago, meeting within Yara to in May of 2018 on the first day of shooting for Top Gun Maverick, the movie that saved the summer of 2022. So I shot all day. I had to fly back to L. A. Got on a motorcycle, went to his office and we just spent many, many hours till early in the morning. And then I got up and went to work. He was doing that kind of thing. We were in rehearsal. We're all exhausted. And Tom's like, all right, I'm getting in the water tank now to work. And he's going into like a sub zero temperature water tank to do a true life stunt for mission. He's gonna fly himself there on a helicopter. Just there's a relentless kind of dynamo energy here that is inspiring to be around. You don't do anything halfway ever, do you? I don't know how else to do it. And I it's so fun because I'm learning constantly. I'm just gonna point out this is not the first time that you've been closely involved with the issue of oil and people's need for it. Because when you came to New York, you were a superintendent's assistant on the Upper West Side. Yes, I was. And when people didn't get their heat because their oil wasn't there, they complained to you. I had to go. Yes, it's true. It's true. I would have to go down and fix fix their heating. I shoveled the ice every day. I made sure the garbage is taken out. I bet you were 200% on that too, right? Chris, I go, I go. It's like I am. I can't help it. I'm like, I want to fix it. I've got this. Of course he does. And of course he can. He's Tom Cruise. Remember the fun? And then some starts october 2nd when Digger opens in theaters nationwide. Guys, that was like fun. I can't wait to see it. It should be fun for all of you. So good.