John Goodman isn’t pretending the reaction to Digger didn’t sting. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the 74-year-old admitted the harsh reviews for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Tom Cruise drama got to him. “Yeah, it, uh, it hurt,” he said.
“Killed Us Before We Opened”
Goodman, who plays a supporting role, believes the negative buzz did real damage. He said it “kind of killed us before we opened,” giving moviegoers a “good reason for people to avoid it.” The numbers back him up: Digger, which follows a reckless oil tycoon played by Cruise, has grossed around $50 million worldwide against a reported budget of more than $125 million.
Still, he has no regrets. “I’m proud of it, and I had a ball doing it. It was a good six months out of my life,” Goodman said, calling the film a “huge swing.” He even joked that he is a “big hypocrite” for backing its environmental message as someone who loves a “big-engine car,” but said the movie works as “a nice wake-up call.”
The Lebowski Effect
Goodman has been here before. “I think everything I’ve done for the Coen brothers flopped, initially, so, who cares?” he said, adding that people still run up to him in the street about Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. He’s even found a little comfort already, noting that the New Yorker review he started reading turned out to be a great one.
He isn’t the only one defending it. Guillermo del Toro called Digger “daring, bold and Cinematically complex,” Bill Burr said “critics are out of their minds,” and Anne Hathaway praised it as “brilliant” on Letterboxd.
With that kind of support, the film may yet find its audience, and Cruise is still being tipped as a Best Actor contender this awards season. If Goodman’s track record is anything to go by, Digger might just be getting started.