John Goodman breaks his silence on Tom Cruise’s biggest flop: “I was hurt”

If you keep a tally of Tom Cruise's big screen triumphs, you're going to hit a snag with his latest, Digger. This one's not just a box office stumble—it's crashed through the floorboards, making a real spectacle of itself in the process. And considering Cruise's usual string of hits—think Top Gun: Maverick, endless Mission: Impossible entries—you have to admit, that's quite an achievement, albeit not the sort anyone wants on their CV.

Digger cost north of $125 million, and only pulled about $50 million worldwide.

So, what is Digger? It's the latest from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, starring Cruise as a washed-up oil tycoon hell-bent on digging up more than he can handle, and in the process, setting off a slow-burn catastrophe. If you care about spoilers, that's as much as you're getting—though, clearly, most people haven't bothered to find out, judging by those ticket sales. Rounding out the cast, John Goodman turns up as the President of the United States, playing it straight while everything falls apart around him.

Goodman on the Backlash

Goodman recently chatted on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, making his debut there of all places, and it was fairly obvious he's not thrilled about how things have panned out for the film. He's convinced the harsh reviews at the start doomed Digger before it even had a chance to get its boots dirty. Here’s what Goodman made of it all on the record:

I was hurt by the negative response, and those early impressions kind of killed us before we opened. It’s a good reason for people to avoid it. I’m proud of it, and I had a ball doing it. It was a good six months out of my life.

He's also openly fond of the film's environmental angle—yes, he's aware that rings a bit hypocritical, given his fondness for 'my big engine car'—but he thinks it sends a useful message, even if it's a bit of a kick in the teeth for the studio accountants. He's hopeful, though, that Digger might stick around long enough for a reappraisal, in the way some of his other box office duds have managed. He pointed to Speed Racer as a film that flopped theatrically but later won a cult following, and made a point of mentioning his track record with the Coen brothers' films—'I think everything I’ve done for the Coen brothers flopped initially, so, who cares? I’ve still got people running up to me in the streets about Barton Fink, and, naturally, [The Big] Lebowski.' So, from his perspective, you can't always trust the first round of reviews to tell the whole story.

Where Next?

Nobody seems quite certain what went so wrong with Digger—whether it's just too messy, too bold for its own good, or possibly just too strange to fit neatly in the multiplex schedules. It’s definitely having a rough time now, but in ten years? Who knows, you might be pretending you liked it all along. In the meantime, at least John Goodman's not sitting idle—he’s got more on the way, including a part in the third run of The Last of Us on HBO.