Tom Cruise, also known as the guy who jumps motorcycles off cliffs or hangs off the side of airplanes for real, has become a household daredevil. However, this time, he is not putting himself through any physical danger. He is taking a different kind of risk. A risk that would require him to abandon his well-known action-hero formula for an unflattering, dramatic, satirical role, alongside his most dramatic physical transformation yet.

The genre may be different, but some things never change. Like Cruise’s insane drive for efficiency, which he once again proved by reducing a six-hour transformation process to under an hour for his upcoming Digger.

Tom Cruise appeared on Pat McAfee’s show this Tuesday, where he got candid about his transformation in the upcoming satirical comedy, Digger. While sharing how he is always on the lookout for ways to "improve" things, the actor recalled the transformation process for his character in Digger that was supposed to take six long hours. However, Cruise was not too keen on spending that much time in makeup during his twelve-hour shift. So, he urged his team to get it done within an hour, even if that meant losing sleep. 

“I was like, ‘Okay, so I don’t mind it. I don’t need to sleep.’ And I was like, ‘Look, we’re going to get this to under an hour.’” 

Even though his team initially found his ambitions unattainable, Cruise kept pushing until the six-hour makeup process was reduced to three hours, then two, and eventually under an hour. 

“They started feeling competitive, and then they got it into under an hour by the end,” said the Mission: Impossible star on The Pat McAfee Show. 

Cruise is stepping into the role of a powerful but aging oil tycoon, Digger Rockwell, whose reckless drilling triggers an environmental catastrophe. But his transformation was way beyond just prosthetics. The film, which is already causing a frenzy, also stars Riz Ahmed, who revealed last month just how completely Cruise disappeared into the character.

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Ahmed shared how Cruise’s commitment to the titular character almost made him forget he was acting alongside the Top Gun: Maverick star. 

Co-star Riz Ahmed sat down for a chat with Empire in August, where he described how Tom Cruise was inseparable from his character. 

“I kind of forgot about Tom. Because Tom was Digger, and he became Digger, and he stayed in Digger. 

Ahmed would later joke with Cruise about missing his pal Digger after the shoot’s wrap. Nonetheless, he did call it a “liberating” experience for Cruise to shed his entire persona and immerse himself in a role like Digger’s. Ahmed then went on to give his two cents on method acting.

“Whatever people say about method acting, whether you try or not, lines blur between yourself and a character. They have to. That’s the process, right?” 

Alongside Cruise and Ahmed, stars like John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons have also joined the roster. And October 2 will finally reveal whether all those hours in the makeup chair were worth it for Tom Cruise. 

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What do you think about Tom Cruise's Digger transformation? Let us know in the comments!