Tom Cruise on exploring his dark side

He's one of the biggest Hollywood stars on the planet, but Tom Cruise was forced to explore a new darker side when it came to filming The Mummy.

The 54-year-old, who walked the black carpet at the film's premiere in Sydney on Monday night, exclusively chatted to Be about creating the "dark universe" in which the reboot of the movie is set in.

"For me when you talk about the original you have to go back to 1932, the Boris Karloff The Mummy and those classic monster movies that really established Universal as a film studio. I love these kind of films, I love these monster movies," Tom told Be.

"I'm always thinking of the audience - 'What is it that they want?' - and they're creating a whole world, a dark universe about of all of these monsters that we're going to make films of.

"What was important to me was entertaining the audience and this is definitely a film that stands alone but it is an origin story, my character Nick is someone that is a thief, who steals artifacts and sells it on the black market and he goes down and releases the mummy unknowingly, thinking he's going to profit from it, and gets something he never expected and his journey of humanity, is very unexpected."

With Universal Pictures building a new monster franchise, Tom will be well acquainted with the darker elements of his character Nick Morton.

Labelled the Dark Universe, a number of films are set to be released starring some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster in the upcoming flick Bride of Frankenstein.

The universe is set to be connected by the mysterious organization Prodigium, which is run by led by Russell Crowe's character Dr. Henry Jekyll, who also stars alongside Tom in The Mummy.

Tom praised his co-star for his work on the film, telling Be the long-time friends had been wanting to work together since 1992!

"It's crazy. I have always admired his work and finally I was here and was like 'If we could get Russell to play this character I would be so happy' and fortunately he said 'Yeah I'm interested,'" Tom said.

"To have that opportunity to know someone for so long and really know their work, I've seen all of his films, and to watch him create this character on set and watch that process and really dive in with us, was a pleasure for me.

"He brings a balance to any film that he's in, and to have him plat that character and I loved the way that he played it. You see him exploring and create that character as he was going along and I think also for the dark universe as Jekyll Prodigium, where is that going to go? The potential is enormous and fun for an audience."

Check out Be's chat with Tom above!