Tom Cruise praised close friends the Prince and Princess of Wales for their “lovely and caring” nature on Wednesday evening after reuniting with the Royal couple at the London premiere of his latest blockbuster, Digger.
The Hollywood legend walked a star-studded red carpet actor alongside Digger director Alejandro González Iñárritu as well as Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Salma Hayek, and Hannah Waddingham.
Cruise, 64, whose long-standing association with the British monarchy also included a close friendship with Diana, said, “They’re just such lovely people and really great, caring people, So, it’s really nice that they are here to share this with us. I have such respect for them.”
Sir David Beckham was also on hand to support his old friend with sons Romeo and Cruz, three months after Cruise championed the former footballer at the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The actor was in London just days after joining pop icon Taylor Swift at Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium, where they appeared lost in conversation while watching her husband Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs win their first NFL game of the 2026 season against the Denver Broncos.
“She talked about football,” he said. “We talked about movies. We talked about art. It was such a fantastic evening. We had a lot of fun.
“She’s very extraordinary. I’ve followed her entire career. I love the two of them and their whole family. It was a really wonderful way to start out. It’s beautiful.”
Digger is a satirical black comedy that follows hapless Digger Rockwell, an eccentric, enormously powerful oil tycoon who is forced to clean up an environmental disaster he unleashed while frantically trying to convince the world he is humanity’s saviour.
The role demanded a massive physical transformation from Cruise involving a bodysuit and extensive prosthetic makeup – but it’s familiar territory for the veteran star.
In 2008, he spent several painstaking hours a day being transformed with silicone prosthetics, fat suits and bald wigs to play overweight film producer Len Grossman in Ben Stiller’s hit comedy Tropic Thunder.
A fondness for performing his own hair-raising stunts has also resulted in Cruise potentially risk his life for the sake of his art, notably across the action-packed Mission: Impossible franchise, but he remains nonplussed about the burden that comes with playing a character.
“I’m making a movie,” he said. “How hard can this (be)? You just figure it out. And the fat suit, you know, I spent years preparing for a movie. It’s not like I just put the fat suit on. It’s like, how do you prepare? I understand how to do it.
“Technically and performance-wise, this was so amazing to be able to challenge every single thing that I know about cinema and not only challenge it but also learn. I’m very much a student on the set.”
Released across UK cinemas on Friday, Digger has already won praise from critics and generated significant Oscar buzz for leading man Cruise, whose illustrious career is yet to earn him an Academy Award.
It’s a strange anomaly for the world’s highest grossing actor, whose films have raked in more than $13.3billion globally since he made his screen debut in 1981 drama, Endless Love.
Director Ridley Scott’s Top Gun would usher in an extended period of mainstream box office successes and turn him into a Hollywood superstar, with the likes of Cocktail, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire and the hit Mission: Impossible franchise establishing his credentials as a leading man.
“The things that I planned and wanted, I’d hoped and dreamed that I would be able to do this for the rest of my life, and I wanted to travel the world,” Cruise said of his ambitions as a young actor.
“I wanted to understand people and have adventures and make films all over the world. I didn’t want to just travel. I wanted to go make movies everywhere and create.”
Now 64, immeasurably wealthy, hugely successful and eligibly single – the actor has attempted marriage three times, with actresses Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes – Cruise remains humble about his incredible achievements.
“I make my movies… it’s a privilege, and I make them for everybody,” he said. “These evenings have always been for me to be able to just, I like being with people. I like being with people. And it’s very beautiful.
“You know, I’ve travelled the world, but now it’s like generations that I’ve been able to meet in these places and in the world, it’s a privilege. I feel very grateful.”
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