Tom Cruise’s character in Digger may be a powerful oil tycoon who finds himself at the centre of an escalating crisis, but there is one unexpected presence that brings out a softer side of him. His cat Maggie.
Maggie has already caught attention in the trailers, with her unusual equation with Digger Rockwell adding an unexpected emotional layer to the character. While Digger is known for his larger-than-life personality, power and bravado, his relationship with Maggie offers a glimpse of the man behind that image. Tom Cruise, in an India TV exclusive statement, spoke about Digger’s cat.
Tom Cruise talks about Digger’s cat
For Cruise, Maggie was an unexpected part of the character. The actor admitted that he initially had no idea what to make of the cat, but soon understood how important she was to Digger.
“I don’t know how Alejandro found it, but I was like, ‘What is this cat? Is this going to be Pet Sematary?’ And then the scene with him washing her, the humour there, I didn’t know what to say to him. But through his every interaction with her, you can see this unbreakable connection to her is critical for him,” Cruise said in an exclusive statement.
For director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, however, Maggie was much more than an unusual addition to Digger’s world. He saw the cat as the emotional anchor of the character and a way of showing audiences that Digger, despite everything about his public persona, is still capable of love.
Creating Maggie was also a lengthy process. Iñárritu wanted a real cat rather than CGI or a puppet and spent months developing her appearance and working out how she would perform on camera. “We could not do a CGI cat or a puppet cat, it had to be real and lovable, but weird. We spent months on the design of old, sick Maggie to get it just right, and months of rehearsal to find how to solve the challenges to shoot it with the best puppeteers. The tone of the cat is exactly the tone that we were heading for with every actor, so the audience asks, is this real? And she is so important because she is the only emotional, grounding thing for Digger that informs us that he’s human and that he’s capable of love,” Iñárritu said in an exclusive statement.
Tom Cruise leads Digger
Digger stars Cruise in the title role alongside Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde are also part of the cast.
Iñárritu directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman. The story comes from Iñárritu and Berman.
The film has been produced by Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Cruise and Michael Sharp. Joshua Grode, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Jez Butterworth and Emmanuel Lubezki serve as executive producers.
The filmmaker has also reunited with several of his frequent collaborators behind the camera, including cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, editors Conor O’Neill and Stephen Mirrione, costume designer Jacqueline West, makeup and hair designer Alessandro Bertolazzi and casting director Francine Maisler.
Dennis Gassner and Richard Johnson serve as production designers, while Kazu Hiro handles prosthetic makeup and Cosmo Sheldrake has composed the music.
Shot entirely in VistaVision, Digger released in cinemas and IMAX across India on October 2, 2026. Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing the film.
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