Tom Cruise dances in Spirit Tunnel of ‘Jennifer Hudson Show’ to the song ‘Risky Business’

Tom Cruise broke out his “Risky Business” dance moves (and black Ray-Ban sunglasses) for his highly anticipated stroll through the Spirit Tunnel on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

The talk show appearance is Cruise’s final stop on the press tour for “Digger,” directed by two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. In her Variety On the cover of Power of Women, 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, can you imagine your Spirit Tunnel? What do you think they’re going to sing for you?'” Hudson said, shooting his shot.

For the uninitiated: The “Jennifer Hudson Show” Spirit Tunnel is a pre-show segment where its crew lines a Warner Bros. corridor. Studio 1 and sings a personalized song to welcome each celebrity guest to the stage. Luckily for Hudson, Cruise knew what he was getting into: “I watch the show, Jennifer,” he told her. “I watch everything. I watched you on ‘American Idol’.” — and, as a new clip shows, he was ready to dance.

The video, posted to social media Tuesday, shows Cruise emerging from the dressing room to find “The Jennifer Hudson Show” staff wearing black sunglasses and singing a riff on the classic “Old Time Rock & Roll.”

The song recalls one of Cruise’s first movie star moments, in the 1983 film “Risky Business,” where he slides into frame to lip-sync and dance in underwear and sunglasses to Bob Seger’s version of the song.

Here, the talk show’s producers remix the lyrics to reference Cruise’s status as a movie legend: “We’ve got Tom Cruise at the Happy Place. He’s in the tunnel walking towards the stage,” the crew sings. “He’s a legend that everyone knows. We have that Tom Cruise rock and roll.”

Cruise quickly gets involved, pulling out his own black sunglasses and dancing, even attracting some of the staff to join him. (Sure, some of his clapping is off-kilter, but Cruise is just as joyful here as he is doing his own stunts in the “Mission: Impossible” films.)

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 triggered an ecological disaster that could also trigger nuclear war. The role required Cruise to transform himself with prosthetics (including a fat suit and thinning white hair) and a Southern accent, but, above all, the absurdist satire demanded his full acting range. The result is a theatrical showcase seemingly designed to put Cruise back in competitive Oscar contention for the first time in decades.

“I’ve never had something that could challenge me in that way, and neither has Alejandro,” Cruise said of his role in the dark comedy.

The Warner Bros. film is a big turning point, and reviews have been very varied (including Variety), so the studio went on the offensive, confronting the negative buzz with a new ad that includes both positive and negative reactions, inviting moviegoers to “decide for themselves.”

Viewers have to wait until Wednesday to see Cruise’s full interview, but watch his full performance in Spirit Tunnel in the clip below: