Hollywood celebrities were mostly supportive of actor Tom Cruise, who was caught yelling at the Mission Impossible 7 crew in London for allegedly not following Covid-19 protocols on set. An audio recording of Cruise’s rant was leaked online on Tuesday. “I’ve never liked him more!” actor Hilarie Burton Morgan wrote. “Can I just blast this at the supermarket?”
“Tom Cruise is correct here FYI. Sorry/Not sorry,” actor Josh Gad tweeted. “I get it,” talk show host and actor Whoopi Goldberg said on The View. “Some people don’t understand why he would get so angry. That’s his movie. If he goes down with COVID, the movie’s done.”
“I wouldn’t have done it that big. I wouldn’t have, you know, pulled people out,” George Clooney told Howard Stern in a radio interview. “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. And, you know, if the production goes down, a lot of people lose their jobs. 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.”
“We are the gold standard,” he can be heard yelling in the leaked clip. “They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. Because they believe in us and what we’re doing. I’m on the phone with every f**king 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 m***********s. I don’t ever want to see it again. Ever!”
He continued, “You can tell it to the people who are losing their f**king homes because our industry is shut down. It’s not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education. That’s what I sleep with every night – the future of this f**king industry! So I’m sorry, I am beyond your apologies. I have told you, and now I want it, and if you don’t do it, you’re out. We are not shutting this f**king movie down! Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re f**king gone.”
“Am I clear? Do you understand what I want? Do you understand the responsibility that I have? Because I will deal with your reason, and if you can’t be reasonable and I can’t deal with your logic, you’re fired,” Cruise continued. “That’s it. That is it. I trust you guys to be here.”
Mission Impossible 7 was in production when the pandemic hit. It was one of the first major films to resume filming when restrictions were eased. The film has been shot in Italy, Norway, and is currently filming in the UK. Production was shut down in Italy recently when 12 crew members tested positive for the coronavirus.