George Clooney defends Tom Cruise’s viral COVID rant

The internet appears to remain divided following Tom Cruise’s recent yelling spree on the set of the new Mission: Impossible movie (he was really unimpressed with crew members for breaking coronavirus safety protocols). But one person who thinks the movie star was definitely in the right is George Clooney. Clooney appeared on a new episode of Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show on December 16, where he gave his hot take on the situation.

According to Clooney, Cruise was 100 per cent correct in being upset, but had he been in the actor’s shoes he would have probably taken a different approach. “He didn’t overreact because it is a problem,” the Oscar-winner began when asked his thoughts. “I have a friend who’s an AD on another TV show who just had the almost exact same thing happen with not quite as far out a response… if the production goes down, a lot of people lose their jobs.” Clooney then explained how he would have handled himself in a similar situation. “I wouldn’t have done it that big. I wouldn’t have, you know, pulled people out,” he said. “You’re in a position of power and it’s tricky, right? You do have a responsibility for everybody else and he’s absolutely right about that.”

Being the nice guy that he is, Clooney added that he can’t really judge the Top Gun actor because he wasn’t there. There isn’t even video of the situation, just an audio recording that has gone viral with more than a million views since the incident went down earlier this week. But Clooney also says it’s important to consider how many people can be put out of work if the virus shows up on a set.

“People have to understand that and have to be responsible. It’s just not my style to, you know, to take everybody to task that way. I think it doesn’t help necessarily to point to specific people in that way and do it that… but, you know, everybody has their own style,” he continued. “The people who were on that shoot will tell us more about it. He’s not wrong at all about that. You know, I just, I don’t know that I would have done it quite that personally, but I don’t know all the circumstances so maybe he had it 10 or 15 times before.”

On December 15 an audio recording of Cruise blasting people on the set of Mission Impossible 7 surfaced in which he threatened to fire anyone else he caught breaking COVID-19 protocols. The movie was one of the earliest productions to resume filming earlier this year when it started rolling again in Europe following an industry-wide shut down.

The project is currently filming in London, but in mid-October during shoots in Italy people on set had tested positive for the virus. Since then Cruise, the star but also one of the film’s producers, has reportedly spearheaded the fight to enforce COVID protocols. “I’m on the phone with every f---ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies! We are creating thousands of jobs you mother---ers,” Cruise yelled at one point during the nearly three-minute rant. “I don’t ever want to see it again, ever! And if you don’t do it you’re fired, if I see you do it again you’re f---ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it – that’s it, and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f---ing do it again.”

Something tells us the crew got the point.