George Clooney Defends Tom Cruise After Viral COVID-19 Rant: 'He Didn’t Overreact'

‘The Midnight Sky’ star weighed in during an interview with Howard Stern.

George Clooney says Tom Cruise “didn’t overreact” after his recent viral tirade on the set of Mission: Impossible 7. Cruise was heard yelling at crew members for standing too close together, thus breaking COVID-19 regulations. 

“He didn’t overreact because it is a problem,” Clooney said during an interview on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday to promote his new film, The Midnight Sky. “I have a friend who’s an AD [assistant director] on another TV show who just had the almost exact same thing happen with not quite as far out a response.”

Although Clooney agreed with Cruise’s rant, he would have approached the situation differently.

“You’re in a position of power and it’s tricky,” Clooney said. “You do have a responsibility for everybody else and he’s absolutely right about that. 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.”

Clooney added, “I think it doesn’t help necessarily to point to specific people in that way and do that…but, you know, everybody has their own style. The people who were on that shoot will tell us more about it. I understand why he did 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.”

Cruise, who pulls double duty on Mission Impossible 7 as the film's star and producer, went off on 50 staff members at Warner Bros. Studios in England, after noticing crew members standing within six feet of each other.

He threatened to fire them if it happened again. 

“If I see you do it again, you’re f**king gone,” Cruise yells in leaked audio published by The Sun. “And if anyone on this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f**king do it again. That’s it. No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their f**king homes because our industry is shut down."

"So I am sorry I am beyond your apologies. I have told you and now I want it and if you 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."

Mission: Impossible 7, which is slated for release in November 2021, was previously delayed at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, and has been filming in Europe for the last several months.  

 

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