Tom Cruise returns to GQ: the story of the new film with Iñárritu

It's been twenty years since Tom Cruise last appeared on the cover of GQ. Today the actor returns to the magazine with a photo shoot by Mario Sorrenti and a long interview by Zach Baron, conducted in the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. At the center of the conversation is Digger, the new film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, but also Cruise's relationship with cinema, his career and the desire to continue to test himself.

At 64, Cruise retains the intensity that has accompanied him since his beginnings. Cinema is not just his work, but an essential part of his identity. «Making films is not what I do. It's who I am", he explains in the interview, underlining how important preparation, study and collective work are for the success of a film. Even when he is not busy filming, in fact, the actor says he dedicates himself to preparing the next project.

The new film with Alejandro G. Iñárritu

In Digger, directed by Iñárritu, Cruise plays an oil company tycoon who unleashes a potentially apocalyptic situation. The film represents a new challenge for the actor after years spent mainly in the role of protagonists of action and franchises, from Mission: Impossible to Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise defines it as the most challenging role of his career, due to the complexity of the character and the cinematic language chosen by the director.

The relationship with Iñárritu was born from a long admiration. Cruise remembers being impressed by Amores Perros and the director's subsequent films, for the attention to images, sets and shots. The two had started talking about the project already in 2018 or 2019, while the preparation of the film lasted about ten years.

Iñárritu, for his part, describes Cruise as an actor with enormous emotional depth. The director talks about how meticulous the construction of the scenes was, in particular those characterized by tight dialogue, rhythm and tension. For him, Digger is an original black comedy, a work born from the desire to explore new possibilities without relying on an already tested formula.