George Clooney defends Tom Cruise’s purported social distancing rant against workers: He’s not wrong

A-lister George Clooney has spoken out in defense of fellow actor Tom Cruise and his purported epic rant at film crew who were reportedly violating social distancing guidelines.

On Wednesday, video purporting to feature Cruise's voice went viral on social media. You can read more about Cruise's angry diatribe here.

What are the details?

During a Wednesday video interview with radio host Howard Stern, Clooney said that his Hollywood peer "didn't overreact."

"He didn't overreact because it is a problem," he said. "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. ... 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. And, you know, if the production goes down, a lot of people lose their jobs. People have to understand that they have to be responsible. It's just not my style to, you know, to take everybody to task that way."

Clooney added that there's always another side to the story.

"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," he explained. "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 what I would have done it quite that personally, but I don't know all the circumstances, so maybe he had [said] it 10 or 15 times before."

In the audio recording, a voice purported to belong to Cruise can be heard shouting at unidentified film staffers on the set of "Mission: Impossible 7" and threatening to fire them if they don't adhere to social distancing guidelines.

"No apologies," the voice purported to belong to Cruise can be heard saying. "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. The future of this f***ing industry!"

The voice added, "We're the gold standard! They're back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us! Because they believe in us and what we're doing! And 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!"

"If I see it again," the voice warned, "you're f***ing gone."

Tom Cruise warns Mission Impossible crew they're 'f***ing gone' if they break Covid rules on setwww.youtube.com