George Clooney Reacts to Tom Cruise’s On-Set Rant About COVID-19 Regulations

George Clooney doesn’t think Tom Cruise overreacted when he laid into crew members for breaking COVID-19 safety protocols on the set of Mission: Impossible 7. Still, he wouldn’t necessarily have reacted the same way. The Midnight Sky actor and director explained how precarious of a situation it is filming amid the pandemic in a new appearance on The Howard Stern Show after The Sun released an audio clip this week purporting to be Cruise castigating two crew members standing too close to each other in front of a computer screen, shouting in part, “I see you do it again, you’re f—ing gone!”

“Well, he didn’t overreact, because it is a problem,” Clooney said when asked about the controversial audio. “I have a friend who is an AD on another TV show who just had almost the exact same thing happen with not quite as far out a response.” As for his own response, had he been in a similar situation, Clooney said he wouldn’t have reacted “that big.”

“I wouldn’t have pulled people out, you’re in a position of power, and it’s tricky, right?” he answered. “You do have a responsibility for everybody else, and he’s absolutely right about that, and if the production goes down, a lot of people lose their jobs. You know, people have to understand that and they have to be responsible. It’s just not my style to take everybody to task that way.”

Mission: Impossible 7 has already faced several delays due to the pandemic, initially halting production in February after Italy, where the movie is filming, became a hotspot for the virus. Principal photography resumed in September, but outbreaks on other major blockbusters such as The Batman have made headlines over the past few months. Cruise referenced the new Hollywood protocols in the audio released this week, shouting, “They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. … I’m on the phone with every f—ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers. They are looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs; you motherf—ers.”

“If I see you do it again, you’re f—ing gone. And if anyone on this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f—ing do it again,” Cruise continued. “That’s it. No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their f—ing homes because our industry is shut down.” The leading man added he is “beyond [crew] apologies” at this point, concluding, “We are not shutting this f—ing movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re f—ing gone.”