George Clooney: 'Tom Cruise didn't overreact'

George Clooney said Tom Cruise was put in a "tricky" position overseeing a major film production in 2020

George Clooney has said that fellow actor/producer Tom Cruise "didn't overreact" when shouting at a film crew for breaching Covid guidelines.

A recording emerged on Wednesday of Cruise apparently threatening to fire workers on the set of Mission: Impossible 7, if they did so again.

Clooney told US radio shock jock Howard Stern that he wouldn't have done it "quite that personally".

But that he totally understood Cruise's "responsibility" for all involved.

"He didn't overreact because it is a problem," Clooney told the Sirius XM DJ, while promoting his new film The Midnight Sky, according to People.

"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."

"I wouldn't have done it that big. I wouldn't have, you know, pulled people out," he added. "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."

Clooney admitted that he didn't fully know the circumstances but wondered how many times the coronavirus regulations had been breached before Cruise lost his temper.

Cruise wore a mask during recent shooting of Mission: Impossible 7 in Rome

In the recording, Cruise can be heard shouting: "They're back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. We are creating thousands of jobs.

"That's it. No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their [expletive] homes because our industry is shut down.

"We are not shutting this [expletive] movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you're [expletive] gone."

'Felt the rage'

The Oscar-nominated US director Ava DuVernay, who has made films such as 13th, Selma and A Wrinkle in Time, said that on the whole, crews had been working hard to obey the guidelines during the pandemic.

She said she too had felt rage over rule-breakers, but added that other directors and producers would not get away with speaking to their workers in the same manner.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay spoke at a Black Lives Matter US election event in Los Angeles last month

"If you've shot during the pandemic, you know the Herculean effort it is to keep a project going within Covid protocols," she tweeted.

"Then some dude doesn't wanna wear his shield? Nah. Been there. Felt the rage."

"Also: If I did that on set, I'd be directing icing videos for the local bakery," she added.