‘Tom Cruise notices your rare amputation and is gagged’: Watch Digger star's interaction with this reporter at Los Angeles premiere

Tom Cruise had a red carpet interaction at the Los Angeles premiere of Digger after he noticed reporter on the carpet and their conversation is caught on video.

Published on: Oct 2, 2026, 13:58:18 IST

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Hollywood star Tom Cruise had a memorable red carpet interaction at the Los Angeles premiere of Digger after he noticed reporter Courtney Echerd on the carpet. Courtney, a 30-year-old digital media professional who is an Osteosarcoma Hemipelvectomy amputee, shared a video of the moment on social media and said it was an evening she “will never forget.”

Tom Cruise meets the reporter

“Tom Cruise was so kind to truly every news outlet and fan at the Digger premiere,” Courtney wrote on Instagram, alongside a clip of their exchange. She also posted the video on TikTok, where she added the caption: “pov: tom cruise notices your rare amputation and is gagged”.

In the video, Tom looks towards Courtney and notices her amputation. “You have, oh, fantastic,” he says. A photo of Courtney on the red carpet then appears in the clip. She tells him, “Crutches, yes, yes. Following my dreams on the carpet here.” “Fantastic. How about that? Exactly. Exactly. Awesome,” he replies with a smile. “We're both doing it,” she says.

“That's it. It's an absolute pleasure to meet you,” he continues. “And congratulations to you too. Awesome. Thank you.”

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Internet reacts

The brief exchange soon caught attention on social media, with viewers praising Cruise’s warm reaction and Echerd’s light-hearted take on the moment. One Instagram user commented, “He seems genuinely excited and filled with joy on your behalf 😆.” Another wrote, “What a gent. This is how you behave in public and treat your fans.” A third said, “It seems like Tom can just tell when a person has drive. And he genuinely respects it.” Another follower added, “Always endeavours to give kindness to everyone he meets 👏.”

About Digger

The interaction happened at the Los Angeles premiere of Digger, the new dark comedy from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Tom plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric billionaire oil tycoon whose actions lead to a global catastrophe. The film also stars Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons and Emma D'Arcy. It has been described as “a comedy of catastrophic proportions.”

Talking about the film’s decade long development, Alejandro recently said, “This film started 10 years ago with Sabina Berman and I writing the screenplay in 2017. The strange thing about developing a narrative that exists so much in the present, is that reality kept overtaking our fictionalized version of it. Reality that, every day these past nine years, has been surpassing fiction, leaving us behind, forcing us to adjust, making us feel that the ground beneath our feet, like the permafrost, was about to collapse. We learned that reality gives us events, but it’s imagination that allows us to recognize ourselves in them. Somewhere between the two, this movie began.”

Digger released in theatres and IMAX on October 2.

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