Tom Cruise recently ripped into crew members on the set of his next Mission: Impossible film in London, lambasting them for violating COVID-19 social distancing rules in an explosive rant captured on tape.
Audio obtained by the U.K.’s Sun tabloid captures three minutes of the rant, in which Cruise blasts his crew for their lack of social distancing.
“If you don’t do it, you’re out!” Cruise shouted at staff on the film. “If I see it again, you’re f—ing gone.”
Cruise seemed to be particularly angry with crew who crowded around a computer on set. He also claimed that the film is the “gold standard” for movie production during the pandemic, and that the future of the industry rests on the success of his production.
“Movies are going because of us,” he said in the expletive-filled audio recording.
“I’m on the phone with every f—ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf—ers.”
It’s unclear exactly when the rant occurred, but production on Mission: Impossible 7 resumed in London in early December. The film was forced to shut down in February while shooting in Venice, just as cases were exploding in Italy. Production resumed in September in Norway, Italy and London.
Cruise, 58, told the crew that he worries about people’s jobs every night because of the pandemic.
“No apologies,” he said, after singling out several people on the set. “You can tell it to the people that are losing their f—ing homes because our industry is shut down. It’s not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education. That’s what I sleep with every night.”
Sources have told Reuters and Variety that the audio is authentic.
Mission: Impossible is not the only production underway during the pandemic, but Cruise has been strict about creating guidelines for COVID-19 safety measures on set, especially after the virus has affected other productions.
In September, for instance, production on The Batman was halted in London when star Robert Pattinson tested positive for COVID-19.
The audio sparked comparisons to actor Christian Bale’s infamous 2009 rant on the set of Terminator: Salvation, in which the actor blasted a crew member for walking on set during filming.
Cruise’s representatives have not commented on the video.
Mission: Impossible 7, by Paramount Pictures, is scheduled for release in November 2021.
— with files from Reuters