George Clooney defends Tom Cruise’s viral RANT on the set of Mission: Impossible 7

Just one day after Tom Cruise’s viral rant on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 surfaced, seemingly everyone in Hollywood has an opinion on it, including George Clooney.

The 59-year-old actor and filmmaker was promoting his new film The Midnight Sky in a virtual interview on The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday. 

When asked about Cruise’s rant, where he reportedly yelled at crew members for standing too close to each other on set, Clooney defending his fellow A-lists actor… though he admits he would have handled that situation differently. 

‘He didn’t overreact because it is a problem. 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,’ Clooney began, though he didn’t identify the TV show.

Clooney, who returns to the director’s chair for The Midnight Sky, which he also stars in, admitted, ‘I wouldn’t have done it that big.’ 

‘I wouldn’t have, you know, pulled people out. 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,’ he said of Cruise, who is not only the star but also one of the main producers on the Mission: Impossible franchise.

‘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.”

Clooney added, ‘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. 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,’ Clooney added.

Filming was supposed to have started on Mission: Impossible 7 back in February, though it was delayed due to the spread of COVID-19.

Production began in earnest in early September, though production was briefly shut down when 12 crew members tested positive for COVID-19.

There is no indication how much is left to film on the highly-anticipated action sequel, which is set for release on November 19, 2021.

Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt alongside other franchise mainstays such as Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn.

Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust andVanessa Kirby’s White Widow are also returning, plus Henry Czerny returning as Eugene Kittridge from the first Mission: Impossible film in 1996.

Newcomers for this installment include Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales and Pom Klementieff, with Christopher McQuarrie returning to write and direct.