By Variety | Created at 2026-09-30 06:08:31 | Updated at 2026-09-30 07:59:40
5 hours ago
Tom Cruise pulled out his “Risky Business” dance moves (and those black Ray-Ban sunglasses) for his much-anticipated walk down “The Jennifer Hudson Show’s” Spirit Tunnel.
The talk show appearance is Cruise’s latest stop on the press tour for “Digger,” directed by two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. In her Variety Power of Women cover story, Hudson revealed she booked the movie star as a guest during a chance meeting this summer at the World Cup final.
“I was like, ‘Tom, could you imagine your Spirit Tunnel? What do you think they’re going to sing for you?’” Hudson said, shooting her shot.
For the uninitiated: the “Jennifer Hudson Show’s” spirit tunnel is a pre-show segment where her staff lines a hallway at Warner Bros.’ Studio 1 and sings a customized song to welcome each celebrity guest to the stage. Fortunately for Hudson, Cruise knew what he’d be signing up for — “I watch the show, Jennifer,” he told her. “I watch everything. I watched you on ‘American Idol.’” — and, as a new clip shows, he came ready to boogie.
The video, posted to social media on Tuesday, shows Cruise exiting the dressing room to find “The Jennifer Hudson Show” staff rocking black sunglasses and singing a riff on the classic, “Old Time Rock & Roll.”
The song calls back to one of Cruise’s first movie star-making moments from the 1983 movie “Risky Business,” where he slides into frame to lip-sync and dance in his underwear and shades to Bob Seger’s version of the song.
Here, the talk show producers remix the lyrics to reference Cruise’s status as a cinema legend: “We’ve got Tom Cruise at the Happy Place. He’s in the tunnel walking to the stage,” the crew sings. “He’s a legend everybody knows. We’ve got that Tom Cruise rock and roll.”
Cruise quickly commits to the bit, pulling out his own black sunglasses and dancing along, even pulling in some staffers to join him. (Sure, some of his hand claps are off-beat, but Cruise is just as gleefully game here as he is to doing his own stunts in the “Mission: Impossible” movies.)
Likewise, “Digger,” in theaters Friday, is a massive test of Cruise’s dedication. In the film, he plays Digger Rockwell, a Texas oil tycoon whose company may have set off an ecological disaster that could also spark a nuclear war. The role required Cruise to transform with prosthetics (including a fat suit and thinning white hair) and a put-on Southern accent, but, mostly, the absurdist satire demanded his full acting range. The result is a theatrical showcase seemingly crafted to put Cruise back in the competitive Oscar race for the first time in decades.
“I have never had something that could challenge me in this way, and neither has Alejandro,” Cruise said about starring in the black comedy.
The Warner Bros. movie is a big swing, and reviews have been wide-ranging (including Variety’s), so the studio has gone on offense, confronting the negative buzz with a new ad that includes both positive and negative reactions, inviting moviegoers to “decide for yourself.”
Viewers have to wait until Wednesday to see Cruise’s full interview, but watch his full Spirit Tunnel performance in the clip below:
