Sep 27, 2026 12:06pm IST
‘Dhurandhar’ Prosthetic Artist Preetisheel Singh D’Souza on Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Look: ‘The Prosthetic Just Disappears Into the Transformation’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Everyone knows that when Tom Cruise has a movie coming up, there are going to be at least a few surprises for the audience. For “Digger,” it isn’t one of those death-defying stunts but Cruise’s own transformation that has become a talking point. His character is a much older, wealthy oil magnate, and his look, achieved through some incredible hair and makeup and prosthetics by Academy Award-winning Japanese American artist Kazu Hiro, has caught everyone’s attention, including makeup and prosthetics artist and character designer Preetisheel Singh D’Souza, who was responsible for Ranveer Singh’s look in “Dhurandhar.”
Speaking about her appreciation for Hiro’s work for "Digger", Preetisheel says, “When you look at Tom Cruise in ‘Digger’, as a prosthetic artist myself, I know how incredibly difficult it is to take one of the most recognizable faces in the world and transform it while making it look very realistic. What Kazu Hiro has done over here is nothing short of extraordinary.”
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For Cruise, who has repeatedly defied his age across the “Mission: Impossible” films, to look like an older, slightly less lean businessman is quite the challenge. Of course, the actor has played such characters before, like the balding Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder.” But it goes to prove how important physical design is in making a character seem convincing to the audience.
Preetisheel credits Hiro’s technical precision in not just designing Cruise’s look, but also making the prosthetics work seamlessly without seeming too jarring. The artist has previously pulled it off for Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour" too. “I know how challenging it is to make silicone move convincingly with an actor's face, especially through all the expressions and dialogue and close-ups. Hiro hasn't simply made Tom Cruise look older or changed the shape of his face,” D’Souza explains. “He has completely reimagined his character through subtle changes in facial volume, skin textures, contours, hairline, and aging. Every single element feels incredibly considered, but what I really appreciate is the restraint. The prosthetic is not announcing itself. It just disappears into the transformation. And honestly, this is what a great character design is all about. I’m a huge fan.”
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In a conversation with BAFTA for their “A Life In Pictures,” Tom Cruise spoke in detail about a special process he established that would help him spend as little time in the prosthetics chair as possible without compromising on the finished look. “So I'm going, and I'm going, okay, I have to be able to do this faster. So I designed a whole thing on how I could get it down, not changing the makeup, but I had a whole board. It was like a Swiss watch and everything else. I said, ‘Look, we're going to get it down to an hour, not just because I want it down an hour. I'm thinking of, I want as much time on set. I'm thinking of the crew’.”
In the upcoming satirical comedy from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Cruise plays a rich oil tycoon named Digger Rockwell, who has caused a massive disaster he must fix before it messes things up for the rest of the world. Alongside Cruise, the film stars Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons. “Digger” will release in cinemas on October 2, 2026.
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