Tom Cruise had to dig deep for his latest starring role — pun intended.
“I have never had something that could challenge me in this way, and neither has Alejandro,” Cruise said about starring in “Digger,” the black comedy from two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman,” “The Revenant”).
Described as “a comedy of catastrophic proportions,” the Warner Bros. film is Iñárritu’s first English-language movie since “The Revenant.” Cruise stars as Digger Rockwell, sporting a thick Southern accent, a pot belly and thinning white hair (fashioned in an unconvincing combover) to play “the most powerful man in the world,” a billionaire whose company may have set off an ecological disaster that could also spark a nuclear war.
“Everything changes,” Cruise’s Digger says at the top of the clip, which sets the stakes. “One day you’re a cat, or a king. Next day, you’re just ashes in a box.”
When Digger learns that his product has caused a glacier to shift significantly, one could say he’s less than concerned. “That glacier over there in Greenland shifts five feet. Now, this desk in front of me is bigger than five feet. My dick is a tenth of that size,” he says, growing increasingly agitated. “What? Do you want me to shut down a billion-dollar platform over something ten times the size of my dick?” (Digger’s bigger concern is his ancient white cat, who could have anywhere between “two weeks and five minutes” left to live.)
John Goodman portrays an ailing U.S. president who implores Cruise’s character to fix the mess he’s unleashed. “Digger got us all into this mess and Digger’s going to dig us out again,” Goodman bellows after learning it could take up to $18 trillion to fix this situation. (The answer, it appears, is to drop a missile on the iceberg.)
As the logline teases, the film follows as Digger “embarks on a frantic mission to prove that he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.” But even if Digger can’t save the world, at least he can control the narrative. There’s a difference between the facts and a well-told story, he explains.
“When all else fails, you hit ’em with the truth. You know the hard truth,” Digger says near the end of the clip. “Just bang bang bang.”
Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde and Emma D’Arcy round out the buzzy ensemble cast.
Ahead of the trailer’s launch, Cruise previewed the highly anticipated footage for press, film critics and fans in a special presentation on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles.
“Digger” might be Iñárritu and Cruise’s first collaboration, but Cruise has been a fan since he got an early preview of Iñárritu’s debut feature, 2000’s “Amores Perros.”
“What a brilliant film. It was amazing,” Cruise said about the crime thriller. “I was one of the first audiences, and I heard about it early on, so when I saw that film, I don’t know how you all felt, but I was like, ‘What the fuck? This guy!’”
Even at the advent of his career, Cruise explained, Iñárritu’s “skilled eye” was evident: “I’m seeing the details of this filmmaker, what he conquered very early on here, and I’m going, ‘How?’ The staging. Chivo [Iñárritu’s longtime collaborator, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki], and what they’re doing with the camera. The performances. The design. The color in the movie. Every aspect of that film was very thought out, very detailed, and you could feel the powerful human voice of someone who was incredibly skilled at what they were doing.”
For years, Cruise would spread the word about the director’s genius by showing the film to friends, but it took years for them to meet and even longer to find the right project to collaborate on. Then, about seven years ago, Iñárritu pitched Cruise the idea for “Digger.” Instead of mailing over a finished screenplay — which is based on a script Iñárritu co-wrote in 2023 with “Birdman” co-writers Nicolas Giacobone and Alexander Dinelaris, along with Sabina Berman — Iñárritu and Cruise spent several days together with the director reading the script to his potential star.
“I’m listening to everything that’s in his mind, so that I can understand that, and then I know how to contribute to it, and bring that collaboration together,” Cruise recalled. “It was beautiful.”
The way Iñárritu described Digger, it was clear to Cruise that “this guy’s got fucking balls.” That’s all he needed to hear. He was game and ready to go. “There’s nothing better than to physically and metaphorically stand on the edge of a cliff and go, ‘Let’s do this. And I trust you, and whatever we’re going to do, I know this is going to be a hell of an experience,’” Cruise added.
The actor particularly relished the idea of transforming to play the role with makeup and prosthetics.
“When we’re looking for characters, we’re looking for humor, drama, certain constructs [and asking] ‘How do we communicate this?’” Cruise said, outlining his process. “Whether it’s Les Grossman [in ‘Tropic Thunder’] or ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ ‘Collateral’ or ‘Risky Business,’ I’m always asking, ‘How do I communicate this?’ The physicality, the makeup, that is stuff that you find.”
Tom Cruise in “Digger.”
Warner Bros.
The film, produced by Legendary Pictures, was shot in the U.K. over six months with Lubezki as the cinematographer, using VistaVision. Iñárritu was unable to join the Cruise at the launch event because he’s still in the U.K. finishing the sound mix, but shared his version of the film’s backstory in a video message.
“It was just after ‘The Revenant,’ when I had an idea. Not a script, not a film, just a relentless, recurring obsession that has endured through all these wild years. I knew who this character was,” Iñárritu said in the clip. “I knew how he spoke, how he survived, how he seduced reality into agreeing with him. But it took me 10 years to do this film, because I wasn’t looking for a story. I was looking for the right way of saying it. And it’s absurd, it’s dangerous, but certainly comedic, because the source of great comedy is tragedy.
“People often ask me why I chose Tom to play Digger. To me, that’s like asking somebody why you drink water when you are thirsty. Because it’s what you need,” Iñárritu said, before introducing the clip: “Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself, because Mother Nature loves motherfuckers.”
“Digger” is Cruise’s first film with Warner Bros. since signing a deal to develop and produce theatrical films with the studio in January 2024. Cruise’s last film with Warner Bros., the sci-fi action film “Edge of Tomorrow,” was released in 2014. He most recently starred in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” the action-packed ending to his run as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. During the conversation, Cruise reflected on his 46-year movie career and explained how his performance in “Digger” represents the accumulation of those experiences.
“I’m so grateful. It’s kind of amazing to be here at this age,” Cruise said, acknowledging the lessons he “absorbed” from the master filmmakers he’s worked with over time, beginning with his earliest experiences on set, like watching Martin Scorsese direct Paul Newman on 1986’s “The Color of Money” or one of his first films, 1981’s “Taps.”
“I think back to that kid on the set looking into different departments, and those people that were gracious enough to be able to share that knowledge,” Cruise said. “I was like, ‘I know I don’t understand it now. One day, I will understand it more,’ and I did. … I recognize how fortunate I was, just absorbing it.”
“Digger” is in theaters on Oct. 2.
