Tom Cruise Says Stopwatch Drills Cut Digger Makeup to Under an Hour

Tom Cruise said he used a stopwatch, a chalkboard and repeated drills to cut the prosthetic makeup time for his role in the upcoming film Digger from six hours to under one hour. The actor described the process during an appearance on the New Heights podcast hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce, in remarks reported this week. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric and powerful oil tycoon who believes he is humanity's savior, in the satirical dark comedy directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The transformation requires extensive prosthetics and a fat suit, and Cruise said the first application took the hair and makeup team six hours to complete. He said the lengthy routine was impractical given the demands of filming. According to his account, he calculated that six hours of makeup on top of 12-hour shooting days left too little time for rest. I have to sleep at least six hours, he said, adding that the schedule left only about two hours off set once makeup was factored in. To address the problem, Cruise said he arrived on set with a chalkboard and a person holding a stopwatch to time how long each prosthetic piece took to apply.