Tom Cruise Reveals How He Cut ‘Digger’ Transformation Time From Six Hours to Under One

Tom Cruise is revealing how he helped cut down the time it took to transform him into his unrecognizable character in the upcoming movie Digger.

On a Friday episode of Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, Cruise said it originally took six hours for the hair and makeup teams to apply the prosthetics that transformed him for the role. But with his busy filming schedule — and a need for some sleep — he knew the process had to become more efficient.

“The first time we did the makeup, it took six hours,” Cruise said.

“I gotta sleep at least six [hours]. They keep saying I need more… but OK, that’s 12,” he continued. “Now, we have 12-hour days filming. So now that’s six hours on, two hours off with the makeup.”

So Cruise came up with a plan to speed things up, which included bringing in a chalkboard and having someone use a stopwatch to time how long it took the team to apply each prosthetic.

“I had a guy there with a stopwatch, and I’m like, ‘OK, you see that time, six hours? By the time we’re done, we’re going to get it under an hour,’” Cruise said. “They were like, ‘No, I’m not doing that; it will never happen.’ I’m like, ‘OK, first of all, if you say no, you can’t do it; you will never get there. So can we agree that we’ll maybe make it a little less?’ So with each piece that was going on, it was timed and then we’d drill and practice.”

And it ended up working.

“They were like, ‘What?!’ And they didn’t even know it, and they didn’t even rush,” the Mission: Impossible star recalled.

Cruise said the experience reflected how he approaches his work in general.

“I like going into a system, studying it and trying to figure out how I can do it better, more efficient,” he said. “The films that I make, I’m constantly going, how can I do it better? How do I prepare better?”

Cruise previously underwent a heavy prosthetic transformation to play studio executive Les Grossman in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. Digger marks his first character role of this kind since then.

In Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, Cruise plays eccentric oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, who has gray hair, wrinkles and a larger frame than the actor. After creating an environmental disaster, Rockwell is ordered by the U.S. president, played by John Goodman, to fix the damage.