Tom Cruise has opened up about his unusual script preparation process.
The 64-year-old actor told Jason and Travis Kelce on their New Heights podcast that he never reads scripts himself before a project. Instead, Cruise has writers and directors read their work aloud to him directly.
“What I do with directors and writers is I don’t read the scripts, I have them read it to me,” Cruise explained on the podcast. “I want to understand what is their communication. They’ve been working on it, they have things that are just there.”
The Top Gun star made clear this isn’t about convenience. “I don’t want my ideas to invade it yet,” he continued. “So they come to me and I just sit there and I’m like, I want you to read it to me.”
Cruise described himself as “a meat and potatoes popcorn guy” during the exchange, positioning himself as the audience during these read-throughs. He tracks his own engagement throughout, noting where he feels invested and where he doesn’t.
“We get to a place where I start to understand, and I’m like, I know how to contribute to that motion,” he added. “Certain ideas, certain things I’d like to play with, and then I don’t necessarily talk about it, I just do it.”
The podcast appearance came after Cruise was spotted at Arrowhead Stadium during the Kansas City Chiefs’ season opener, seated near Taylor Swift. The two were photographed in deep conversation during the game.
Jimmy Fallon pressed Cruise about the encounter on The Tonight Show, asking what happens “when the biggest movie star in the world is sitting next to the biggest artist in the world.”
“She was bringing the football. First of all, she’s a genius,” Cruise responded on the NBC program. “I’ve been following her since she was a kid. Everybody there, all their friends, they’re a beautiful couple and magical in their own right.”
Cruise and Swift discussed movies and music during their stadium chat, with the actor praising her comedic timing and creative range. “A brilliant writer also, by the way. Brilliant musician and director. Very skilled,” he told Fallon.
The Kelce interview also touched on Cruise’s physical transformation for his upcoming film Digger, where he plays a fictional oil tycoon. The role required grey hair, prosthetics, and a fat suit — a process that initially consumed six hours of his day.
“I like going into a system, studying it, trying to figure out how I can do it better, more efficient,” Cruise said, explaining that he streamlined the makeup application using “a chalkboard with an eraser and a marker.”
Digger marks approximately the 50th film in Cruise’s four-decade career.