Los Angeles, September 20, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Hollywood star Tom Cruise has revealed that he reduced the time required for his dramatic make-up transformation for his upcoming film ‘Digger’ from six hours to less than 60 minutes.
The 64-year-old actor, who recently appeared on Travis and Jason Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ podcast, said the lengthy make-up process initially posed a challenge because he needed to sleep for at least six hours while working 12-hour filming days.
“The first time we did the make-up, it took 6 hours. I gotta sleep at least six (hours). They keep saying I need more… but OK, that’s 12,” Cruise said.
Cruise appears dramatically different in the film as an eccentric oil tycoon. During the early stages of production, he realised that spending several hours with the hair and make-up team while prosthetics were applied was not practical.
He then introduced a systematic approach to speed up the transformation. Cruise brought in a chalkboard and a person with a stopwatch to record the time taken for every stage of the make-up process.
“I had a guy there with a stopwatch, and I’m like, ‘OK, you see that time, 6 hours? By the time we’re done, we’re going to get it under an hour’,” he recalled.
Cruise said the team initially doubted that such a reduction would be possible. He responded by breaking down the process, timing each individual step and repeatedly practising the sequence.
“With each piece that was going on, it was timed and then we’d drill and practice,” he said.
The drills eventually paid off, with the complete transformation taking less than an hour without the team having to rush through the process.
“They were like, ‘What?!’ And they didn’t even know it, and they didn’t even rush,” Cruise said.
The actor added that he enjoys studying systems and finding ways to make them more efficient, both on and off the film set.
“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 said.
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