Tom Cruise at 64: ‘I’m so grateful. It’s amazing to be here at this age’

LOS ANGELES – “I’m so grateful. It’s kind of amazing to be here at this age,” said Tom Cruise in a recent press preview event at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. The superstar, who turned 64 last July 3, talked about what may be one of the most important films in his career, which has spanned four decades.

On this afternoon inside the Steven J. Ross Theater, the superstar sat down and openly shared his enthusiasm for “Digger,” his first film with Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Cruise rarely discusses – and with such passion – a film that will not open until late this year.

But first, Iñárritu, who won several Oscar and Golden Globe awards and is acclaimed for his films, including “Amores Perros,” “Babel,” “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” appeared on the screen and explained why he could not attend the event in person in Burbank:

“I am really sorry I couldn’t be there personally with you and Tom, but as you can see, I am at the sound stage in London, finishing the sound mix for ‘Digger.’ It’s a very delicate process, which demands my whole attention.

‘The film needed Tom’

“And you are about to meet the most charismatic catastrophe you have ever seen. 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.

“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.

“The film needed Tom. We wanted to work together since the beginning of the century. I admired him as an actor for years, and that wasn’t a surprise for me. The surprise was discovering that the human being behind the actor was just as extraordinary as the performances I will see throughout his career.

‘It took me 40 years to become this character’

“The transformation he went through was astonishing. ‘Alejandro, it took me 40 years to become this character,’ he told me once. And I think we both know what it means to carry an entire career into a single moment like this. We both knew that throughout our journeys, we had never done anything even close to this.

Tom Cruise arrives at the Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

“Making this film demanded everything I had. I have never prepared a project with this level of precision. Every frame, every lens, every color, every costume, every face, every context, every object, every layer and symbol, nothing here is an accident. We shot on VistaVision because cinema deserves scale.

“We used a 1954-designed camera, and for the first time ever, Chivo (Emmanuel Lubezki) and I were allowed to mount on some new, crazy wide vintage Leica lenses designed specifically for our film.

“I was lucky enough to be surrounded by extraordinary artists, producers, collaborators, co-writers, and a dreamlike, incredible cast, and people who believe in something that, for a very long time, existed only inside my head.

“Today, you are about to see only the first crack in the door, a tip of the iceberg, a trailer, a promise, because ‘Digger’ is charming. He’s funny. He’s impossible not to watch. Like all the most dangerous people, he makes you want to agree with you.

“Thank you for being here to be the first audience to take this journey with us. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself, because Mother Nature loves motherfuckers. This is Digger. Let’s play.”

‘Digger’: Sneak peek

And with those words, we got an advance sneak peek of “Digger.” The film’s short first teaser in December last year, showing Cruise in cowboy attire, made me think “Digger” was an intimate film.

Nothing prepared me for the footage. The film, with Cruise playing Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon, “the most powerful man in the world,” looks like an epic, a wild, dark comedy, “of catastrophic proportions.”

Made up to look like a man in his 70s to 80s, Cruise sports thinning white hair, a paunch, a prosthetic nose, and wrinkles. The billionaire Digger appears to have a company that caused a spill in the Arctic, resulting in a devastating global ecological disaster. The oil baron sets out to prove he is humanity’s savior before the catastrophe he himself unleashed ruins the world.

The eccentric man, often shown in a robe or pajamas, dotes on his dying, infirm white cat. It appears that Iñárritu has elicited a standout performance from Cruise. The cast looks like a bunch of wild, colorful characters played by John Goodman as the U.S. President, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Huller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons, among others.

Story of power and perception

Coming across as a grand, satirical story of power and perception, “Digger” has stirred mentions of Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.” But “Digger” could be a totally different original.

After the lights went back on, Cruise, in an all-black ensemble – short-sleeved fitted shirt that bared his biceps, jeans and boots –  eagerly began talking about “Digger.”

“I saw his film 25 years ago, ‘Amores Perros’ – what a brilliant film,” he recalled watching Iñárritu’s first feature film that starred Gael Garcia Bernal, Emilio Echevarria, and Goya Toledo. “It was amazing. 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!’

“The beauty of anyone in their field – they have a skilled eye for looking at something. So I’m seeing the details of this filmmaker, what he conquered very early on here, and I’m going, how? The staging. Chivo 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.

“And so I called all my friends. I was having people over. I was like, ‘Call the studios. You’ve got to see this movie. Who’s this guy, Alejandro?’ I’d never heard of him before. And he and I didn’t meet for many, many years. Then, years later, he came to me, and we talked.

“I go to every one of his films. What’s he doing next? What’s he doing next? And he’s just a beautiful human being and a very gifted artist. Everything that he’s doing, is a discovery, and it’s surprising.

“He came to me with this project, ‘Digger,’ which he’d been working on for a couple of years by then. And he came to me, I guess now seven years ago, something like that, as he was developing, working on it, and then we just worked on it together.

“I think when you see ‘Digger,’ just the level of detail, the skill, the layers of making this film. He has never made something like this before, nor have I.”

Digger: A charming but dangerous man

Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “Digger,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo from Warner Bros.

The four-time Oscar-nominated actor discussed creating Digger, a funny, charming, but dangerous man, with Iñárritu. “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, and let’s come together and let’s do it. Let’s all do it.

“I have never had something that could challenge me in this way, and neither has Alejandro when we went in, ever. And when you see this film, it’s totally original.

“The director sets the frame and the lenses and the lighting. It’s really my favorite thing. Alejandro shows me, he’s like, ‘I want you to look like this.’ And it wasn’t like he said, ‘This is the kind of character.’ So, I’m thinking, this guy’s got fucking balls, and I’m like, I can’t wait. Let’s go.

“When we’re looking for characters, we’re looking for humor, drama, certain constructs – how do we communicate this? Whether it’s Les Grossman 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 as you are learning how to communicate.

Tom Cruise and Ruben Nepales | CONTRIBUTED

“You really have to understand the tools. It’s not one size fits all. You have to find the communication, the lenses, the color of the makeup. The level of detail in making a film like this is – the color of the cowboy boots. What are my shorts like? The sets, the color of the sets. They’re beautiful on every single level, and it’s all very…you look at the taste of this man. It’s very special.”

Cruise continued, “Like anything, there’s not one rhythm or comedy-fits-all, as we know. I mean, if you look at the difference between a ‘Risky Business’ to a Jerry McGuire to a Les Grossman, ‘Edge of Tomorrow,’ it has its own musicality. It has its own vision.

“If you start to feel the musicality of the character, it has a rhythm, and it’s not a rhythm like anything else. So the behavior of a character, the movement of a character, these are things that, as we’re looking at the makeup side, as you’re developing, you’ve got to go, is this our tone? Is it drama? Is it comedy? Is it too much? You’re dialing it in.

“Alejandro understands music, and that’s the universal language that we’re all finding. I think further, how do I prepare so that we have time to discover that rhythm? Everything that I’m doing in terms of training or language or dance, I’m going, how do I prepare for these moments? So I’m thinking about having that ability to be able to play a character like this.

“Alejandro took several days during which he was just reading the script to me, and 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. And to be there with Alejandro, it was beautiful.”

Artistry, craft elements

Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “Digger,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo from Warner Bros.

The resulting performance is generating buzz that “Digger” may be Cruise’s strongest chance to win his first Academy Best Actor win.

Cruise touted “Digger’s” artistry and craft elements. “The layers of filmmaking that are going on in this movie, just from the design of the film, to the performance of the film, to the development of the character and all the cast – they’re exceptional.

“It is discovering what is in that frame? What is the set? What is the humor? What’s igniting?

“On ‘Taps,’ I’m there with DP Owen Roizman, and he’s talking about lenses. He’s got to be thinking, ‘Yeah, this kid’s just asking me gazillion questions.’ And he’s telling me all these technical things, and I was just trying to absorb what he was saying.

“So, understanding also then, every place that I would go, I was looking, I was watching, and I was going, boy, these guys knew. They understood the camera, they understood framing, they understood the stage and how to utilize that stage to create an effect.

“Later on, I realized it wasn’t just Owen Roizman and the knowledge that he had at that particular moment, but everyone that he learned from previously when he was the young guy loading the cameras, being there with the great masters and not so great masters. You learn from both.

“And even all the stuff that Owen had said to me during that time period, I was like, I don’t know what he’s saying right now, but eventually, you absorb it, and it just makes sense as time goes on.

“Chivo and Alejandro, they knew each other since they made commercials together. I don’t know what the water was like when those guys were growing up (laughs). They’re remarkable.”

On VistaVision, the same camera format that Autumn Durald Arkapaw used in “Sinners,” for which she won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography this year, Cruise said, “It’s not just shooting on VistaVision. It’s the development of the handmade lenses that we were able to make. It was wild seeing the VistaVision, but also the lenses that they created to get this handcrafted look. You can see and feel the difference.

“Just loading a camera in VistaVision, the sound of that film going through, I was like, ‘Just everyone quiet for a second. Let’s just hear it going through.’ It’s a beautiful thing. I love it.”

The footage indeed looked sharp, stunning, and epic in proportion and has that vintage filmic look.

‘It’s kind of amazing to be here at this age’

Having grown up in the 1960s and 1970s, Cruise loved going to the movie theaters and still does. “First of all, I’m the audience,” he declared. “I love movies. I love all kinds of movies. I love going to the opening weekend. I like being there with an audience.”

Tom Cruise onstage during the Saturn Awards on Sunday, March 8, 2026, at Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City in Universal City, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

“I want people to be immersed in the movie, so whatever it takes to tell that story. And it takes all of us. Making movies is a beautiful thing because it’s all of us together. Really, it is very special.”

In parting, Cruise reflected, “Everyone has a different point of view of life, their own experience, and it’s a lifelong journey of learning. I’ve never felt like, I’m there. I’m there. You’re never there. It’s always the next dream, the love of this art form, and the passion – it’s all-encompassing.

“Since I was a kid, I’ve traveled the world, and I go, and I watch movies with audiences, and I’m very curious about – do they feel the same way I do? I grew up in different places – do they feel the same way I feel?

“That’s the beauty of this art form – everyone has the things they like and their own taste and what works and what doesn’t work. I tell people, learn these skills and go off and communicate your own stories. You don’t have to do it like I do. Do your thing.”

Flashing that famous smile, Cruise stressed, “I’m so grateful. It’s kind of amazing to be here at this age. I think back to that kid on the set looking into different departments, and those people who were gracious enough to be able to share that knowledge, and I was like, ‘I know I don’t understand it now. One day I will understand it more,’ and I did.

“I feel fortunate. To be there off camera and see Paul Newman acting as (Martin) Scorsese is directing him. I recognize how fortunate I was, just absorbing it.”

Ruben V. Nepales is an LA-based journalist whose honors include nine first prizes from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards. He authored “Through a Writer’s Lens,” which won first prize in nonfiction at the 2020-2021 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. In 2004, he became the first Filipino voter of the Golden Globe Awards, He is a member of the Golden Globe Foundation, one of Hollywood’s biggest philanthropic organizations.

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