Tom Cruise has finally found a way to make saving humanity look suspiciously like losing a bet with a hairdresser. In Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, Cruise becomes Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil billionaire sporting facial prosthetics, a formidable pot belly, a thinning white combover, and a Southern drawl broad enough to announce trouble before he does. The internet, naturally, has been feasting on the spectacle as he steps back from being an enigma of action.

But beneath the comic excess, Cruise faced a serious acting challenge, drawing on four decades of filmmaking experience to make Digger more than makeup.

Tom Cruise told Empire that Digger Rockwell began as “a real leap into the unknown,” which is Hollywood shorthand for voluntarily walking into beautifully expensive madness. Alejandro G. Iñárritu showed him the character, Cruise recalled, and the response was immediate: he wanted the part. Apparently, cinematic lunacy remains irresistible when properly dressed.

“It took all of my knowledge, from all of the years of every film I made, to be able to play this character and fulfil the ambition of this movie,” Cruise said. He noted that four decades of films became unlikely preparation for one spectacularly eccentric creation. In other words, every previous Cruise performance had been quietly preparing him for this particular American fever dream.

During the Empire interview, Cruise explained that Iñárritu read the screenplay aloud over several days, letting him experience the story through the filmmaker’s voice. The Mission: Impossible star said the performance gradually arrived through changing his voice, makeup, suit, boots, and movement. By the end, the actor noted, Cruise had effectively disappeared, leaving Digger Rockwell to take over.

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It seems the acting side of Digger Rockwell was as emotionally intensive as the physical transformation, with Tom Cruise absorbing and absorbing.

Tom Cruise did not exactly slip into Digger Rockwell; he practically disappeared underneath him. Hours of heavy facial prosthetics gave the 64-year-old actor an aged, weathered, heavily textured appearance, while custom artificial teeth changed the way his mouth moved and helped shape the character’s voice. Suddenly, the familiar leading man had acquired considerably more mileage.

Then came the tailored suits, cowboy boots and the physical rhythm of an ultra-powerful oil tycoon who carries his considerable weight with sluggish authority. Cruise layered that silhouette with a thick Southern accent, allowing the voice, wardrobe, teeth and movement to work together rather than merely decorate the performance. The result was a transformation built from head to toe, with every strange detail helping Tom Cruise absorb Digger Rockwell until the physical makeover became inseparable from the emotionally demanding performance behind it.

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Can you see the effort behind the Digger transformation through Tom Cruise's acting? Let us know in the comments!