Tom Cruise reveals how he cut ‘Digger’ make-up time to under an hour

Tom Cruise revealed that he reduced his make-up and prosthetics transformation time for ‘Digger’ from six hours to less than 60 minutes. The actor used timed drills and repeated practice to streamline the process without rushing his make-up team

Los Angeles: Hollywood star Tom Cruise knows the business and its nuances inside and out. The superstar recently shared that he reduced his transformation time for filming ‘Digger’ from six hours to less than 60 minutes.

The 64-year-old actor recently appeared on Travis and Jason Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ podcast and said, “The first time we did the make-up, it took six hours. I gotta sleep at least six (hours). They keep saying I need more… but OK, that’s 12.”

---

The actor looks dramatically different as an eccentric oil tycoon in his new movie. During the initial phase of production, he realised it wasn’t practical for him to spend so much time with the hair and make-up team having his appearance altered with prosthetics, so he worked on “drills” to make the process faster.

He further mentioned, “Now, we have 12-hour days filming. So now that’s six hours on, two hours off with the make-up.”

The actor shared that he brought in a chalkboard and someone with a stopwatch to time how long each step of the process took.

He went on, “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.”

The drills eventually paid off, and the process took less than an hour.

“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?” he added.