The “Top Gun” star graced the (fake) cover of TIME Magazine to debut a closer look at his transformation into Digger Rockwell.

See more images of unidentifiable Tom Cruise as his Digger character

The “Top Gun” star graced the (fake) cover of TIME Magazine to debut a closer look at his transformation into Digger Rockwell.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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July 15, 2026 3:01 p.m. ET

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Tom Cruise in ‘Digger’. Credit:

Warner Bros. Pictures

- Tom Cruise appeared as Digger Rockwell on a fake cover of TIME Magazine.

- The photo shoot also featured quotes from his fictional *Digger* character.

- *Digger* hits theaters on Oct. 2.

Tom Cruise is gracing the cover of TIME Magazine — kind of.

The actor debuted a promotional photo shoot in support of his new movie *Digger* that gives a closer look at his kooky oil tycoon character from Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s upcoming satire. (Though the magazine clarified that “The editorial team was not involved in the creation of this cover” in an Instagram post.)

Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell from ‘Digger’.

Warner Bros./TIME

In the photos — which have been formatted to look like a TIME cover shoot, in partnership with the magazine itself — Digger dons a beige cowboy hat, a gray suit, a bolo tie, and snakeskin boots.

Digger removed his hat for one of the photos, revealing the balding gray hairpiece atop Cruise’s dome, as well as a clear look at his prosthetic nose and false sideburns.

Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell from ‘Digger’.

Warner Bros./TIME

That same shot also features Digger’s ailing pet cat, who is wearing a collar with a pendant that matches the oil baron’s bolo tie…as well as a cloudy blue eye that appears to be a strikingly similar hue.

That shot also contains a “quote” from Digger: “Reality is the biggest story ever. Nobody’s buying it.”

It already seemed clear that *Digger* will be a scathing takedown of baby boomer executives who are accelerating the climate crisis through corporate greed — the plot, as teased in the trailer, seems to revolve around the protagonist’s company causing an ecological disaster by drilling into a glacier. But the aforementioned quote prompts the question: might Cruise’s character also spoof a younger generation of billionaires who believe our reality is nothing but a simulation?

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Another shot shows Digger seated on a stool with a massive belt buckle on his waist and a small globe in his hand. That image features the quote, “I didn’t change the world. I changed what people think it is.”

Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell from ‘Digger’.

Warner Bros./TIME

Cruise recently appeared at a trailer launch event for *Digger* in Burbank, Calif., where he explained how he shaped the look and personality of the character. “My process is: I’m absorbing, I’m absorbing, I’m absorbing,” Cruise said. “With the body, we’re communicating a story… I want people to be immersed in a story.”

The actor explained, “I’m always asking, ‘How do I communicate this?’ The physicality, the makeup, that is stuff that you find as you are learning how to communicate.”

Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell from ‘Digger’.

Warner Bros./TIME

Cruise said that he fixated on “the lenses, the color of the makeup,” as well as the “color of the cowboy boots,” and asked, “What are my shorts like?”

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He added, “The behavior of a character, the movement of a character, these are things that as we’re looking at the makeup side, as you’re developing, you’ve got to go, ‘Is this our tone? Is it drama? Is it comedy? Is it too much?’ You’re dialing it in.”

*Digger* hits theaters on Oct. 2.

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