September 21, 2026 1:43 pm
126
Tom Cruise is doing an overload of press for his latest film “Digger,” and that means he’s been getting pretty candid about how he makes films. The action star is pulling the curtain a little further and explains WHY he has directors and writers read scripts to him, rather than reading them himself on his own, and even how he was able to get the makeup needed for his “Digger” character (an oil tycoon named Digger Rockwell) in a brisk time.
Speaking with the Kelce Brothers (NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce) on their popular podcast “New Heights,” Cruise says he doesn’t want to have his ideas “invade” the project and relies on writers sharing their take on scripts before inserting his perceptions into them.
“What I do with directors and writers is I don’t read the scripts; I have them read it to me because I don’t want my ideas to invade it yet. I want to understand what is their communication, they’ve been working on it, they have things that are just there. So they come to me and I just sit there and I’m like, I want you to read it to me…And then we get to a place where I start to understand, and I’m like, I know how to contribute to that now. It sparks ideas. I have certain ideas, certain things I’d like to play with, and then I don’t necessarily talk about it; I just do it.”
This comes after Cruise recently confirmed his on-set intensity and also detailed on the same podcast episode how he was able to get the makeup/prospeitcis on his latest film “Digger” from six hours to under an hour after getting the team to work with him to get that in-chair time to the shortest amount of time possible.
“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.’ 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 they were able to get the in-chair time down to under an hour, so it all worked. “They were like, ‘What?!’ And they didn’t even know it, and they didn’t even rush…I like going into a system, studying it and trying to figure out how I can do it better, more efficient. The films that I make, I’m constantly going, how can I do it better? How do I prepare better?”
Trying to get systems down is very much about not wasting time (time is money and couldn’t be more true about Hollywood), but it also sounds like trying to get more of his time in front of cameras, which is certainly understandable. Hopefully, these events were as mutually beneficial as Cruise outlined above and not just adding extra stress.
Support independent movie journalism to keep it alive. Sign up for The Playlist Newsletter. All the content you want and, oh, right, it’s free.
Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu(“Birdman,” “The Revenant”) directs and co-writes “Digger,” which is now set to hit theaters on October 2, and there have been denials that the satirical film is going to be a musical. You can watch/listen to that full exchange from the latest episode of “New Heights” with Tom Cruise below.
- Tags
- Alejandro G. Iñárritu
- Digger
- Tom Cruise
Previous articleGeorge Lucas Says He Retired From Filmmaking Despite Having “Three More ‘Star Wars’” Movies To Make: “I Was Running Out Of Time”
Next article2026 New York Film Festival Preview: 21 Must-See Movies To Watch
NEWSLETTER
News, Reviews, Exclusive Interviews: The Best of The Playlist in your Inbox daily.
