Tom Cruise, 64, Debuts New Red Carpet and Height-Boosting Shoes

Samir Hussein / Samir Hussein/WireImage Tom Cruise has surprised longtime fans with his bold new hair color and an even bolder set of height-boosting boots.

The 64-year-old action star swapped his traditional chocolate-toned hue for a deep reddish-brown shade, debuting it on Sept.

22 at the London premiere of his upcoming film, Digger .

The star-studded event drew the Prince and Princess of Wales , William and Kate, as well as soccer superstar David Beckham, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, and director Alejandro G.

Iñárritu.

Cruise wore a black custom Giorgio Armani tuxedo with navy lapels, a white shirt, and a black bow tie.

The 5-foot-7 Top Gun actor also got a subtle height boost by opting for heeled black boots.

Even with his heeled footwear, Cruise couldn’t quite reach the height of his fellow A-list attendees, including 5-foot-9 Kate Middleton, 6-foot-3 Prince William, and 6-foot David Beckham.

Cruise’s red carpet look contrasts sharply with his unrecognizable appearance in the film as Digger Rockwell, a fictional billionaire with a potbelly and receding grey hair.

On a Sept.

18 episode of Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, Cruise said his transformation for the film included a tedious makeup and prosthetics routine that initially took six hours.

To speed it up, the actor said he showed up with a chalkboard and timer.

“I had a guy there with a stopwatch, and I’m like, ‘OK, you see that time, six hours? By the time we’re done, we’re going to get it under an hour,’” Cruise said.

“So with each piece that was going on, it was timed, and then we’d drill and practice.” That helped cut his transformation time to under an hour, he said.