Last night, the internet was abuzz after audio surfaced of megastar Tom Cruise berating the crew of Mission Impossible 7 for not following COVID protocols. The three minute-plus rant contains many an F-bomb, screaming, and more than a little megalomania, but at a time when COVID cases are surging and Hollywood is on the line, it’s also kind of cathartic to hear someone taking things seriously.
This audio of Tom Cruise screaming at the Mission Impossible 7 crew for breaking COVID rules is kind of … great?https://t.co/IvcgnX93AA pic.twitter.com/x59cikDdgO
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) December 15, 2020
The reactions that this rant inspires are complex. On the one hand, yeah, people need to take COVID-19 seriously, and Cruise is right about that. And there is a lot of pressure on movies like Mission Impossible 7 (seven?? Really?) but … the way he’s saying all of this is not great. I personally get upset when someone sends me a text message without punctuation or emojis because I assume they are mad at me. If someone were to start yelling at people like that at my work, it would be incredibly uncomfortable and I might just quit out of pure fear.
Cruise is in a huge position of power and privilege on his sets, and you can tell by what he says and yells here that he knows it, in both good ways and bad. He knows that he is the face of this movie and that their set must set an example for the entire industry—that’s fine. But he also has an incredible ego about this and makes this all about him and his power trip. Bad.
And in some ways, yeah, I feel for him when he goes off about how this is all on him and he has to sleep with this at night … but also he maybe has a misguided concept of his own importance? And it’s worth noting that the thing he’s mad about is that if someone gets sick because the crew broke COVID protocols, it will be bad for the industry and people’s lives, not that someone might, well, be ill.
The reactions to the rant were pretty varied as well.
Interesting gap in the reaction to Tom Cruise.
People in my TL under 40: He’s a monster! No human being would ever talk to colleagues that way?!
People 40-60: sounds just like my old boss.— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) December 16, 2020
I get that Tom Cruise “cuss everybody out” approach but it’ll never hit as hard as quietly replacing folks mid-day. I was on a shoot & they pulled an “Aunt Viv”. We came back from lunch & it was new dude holding the boom mic. producers smiling like he’d been there the whole time
— Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) December 16, 2020
#TomCruise yelling at the #MI7 crew for not following #COVID guidelines pic.twitter.com/yzqMINbkfd
— Rohit Shetty (@im_RohitShetty) December 16, 2020
So #TomCruise has totally sorted out how I’m going to deal with the family over Christmas if they don’t follow our house safety rules.
— Sanjeev Bhaskar (@TVSanjeev) December 16, 2020
Finally, someone has an opinion about Tom Cruise: he is correct in the content of what he is saying, more or less, but it is never ever ever ok to scream at people in a professional context (or most any context generally? but especially at work) and there is zero excuse for that
— Joseph Fink, 👻🎃healthcare is a human right🎃👻 (@PlanetofFinks) December 16, 2020
It is both cathartic to hear someone get yelled at for not taking COVID protocols seriously and fucked up to have someone scream like that at a subordinate in a professional environment. Two things can be true.
— 🌈📽️🇹🇹✨Cate Young (@battymamzelle) December 16, 2020
But still, as complicated as this is, I would love for Tom Cruise to personally yell at everyone not wearing a mask and continuing to spread this disease. Especially those in Congress.
(via: Variety, image: Paramount)
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