Tom Cruise’s On-Set Meltdown Speaks for Many of Us
By: Joe Duncan
Tags: News, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Celebrities, Media

COVID-19 | Coronavirus | Media

Tom Cruise’s On-Set Meltdown Speaks for Many of Us

Tom Cruise wears a mask in the age of COVID-19. Image: Shutterstock

Audio was recently released from a behind the scenes rant carried out by none other than the Tom Cruise. The star was on the set of Mission Impossible 7 and can be heard screaming angry profanities at cast members. It’s reminiscent of other private meltdowns we’ve seen from celebrities over the years, but one thing is strikingly different: a lot of us empathize with Cruise.

The star began berating his co-workers after he caught them not wearing masks, which were studio guidelines and in violation of local laws. The star can be heard screaming how the transgressing employees had risked thousands of jobs. He launched into a tirade (video below) about how such irresponsibility could risk paying peoples’ bills, something that’s much-needed as America heads into its eighth month since relief has been passed by a stalemated Congress.

People need whatever work they can get and if the studio that employs thousands of people shuts down, those people will all be out of work with no recourse, with bills due, with rent due and possibly mortgages too, and hungry mouths at home that need to be fed.

All of this happens as the death toll in America just crossed 300,000 total dead from COVID-19, a somber reminder of the deadliness of this pandemic and the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And the pandemic has no signs of slowing down. By all key metrics, things are probably about to get worse before they get better.

So it’s understandable that much of America actually sympathizes with Cruise’s outrage. I couldn’t resist the temptation to tweet a half-serious, tongue-in-cheek quip about how Tom Cruise speaks for us all. At the very least, if we don’t sympathize with his frustration, feeling that Tom is speaking or so many of us when he loses his mind and blows off steam at his irresponsible co-workers, we’re not mad at him for it. We understand.

We understand, Tom, we understand.

We can logically put the pieces together. This virus is deadly, it’s serious business, and thus it should be taken seriously.

Fair warning: the video of the meltdown below is a raw expression of the frustration so many of us have felt over the last few months and quite a bit of unadulterated profanity:

The Sun

That was quite a rant. But wasn’t it deserved, at least a little bit? I think so. And I also think that performance was better than his 1996 “show me the money” meltdown in Jerry Maguire. Tom was not being glib with us. Turns out, the real deal over a very real situation is far better than one of Tom’s best performances. And that’s because we feel it.

We’re tired of watching people put the lives of others at risk. We’re tired of watching people throw tantrums about how they need to be exempted from the basic and obvious safety protocol that’s been one of the best methods we have of combatting this pandemic. It’s like they’re flaunting the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people so they can get a kick out of feeling like a rebel.

Yeah, now isn’t the time for all that.

People are dying, people are hospitalized, people are dead. Now isn’t the time to make yourself feel like a badass because you stupidly didn’t drape cloth over your face and put yourself and others at risk.

While I don’t condone yelling at coworkers whenever we feel like it, when they put other people’s lives and income at risk, I get it. What else did they expect? For him to just go along with it? Is that not everything that’s wrong with America’s response to the crisis personified? I think it is.

Meanwhile, I’m just glad to see a rant that finally isn’t racist. I’m glad to see a behind-the-scenes tantrum that isn’t superficial, it doesn’t speak badly about Black people or minorities, it isn’t drunken, it’s just real; it’s the same raw emotion that so many of us have been holding in for so long. This frustration, this fury even, when we see people so willing to jeopardize the lives of those in their communities around them.

How selfish is that?

I hope critics give Tom’s performance two thumbs up and all of the best ratings possible. One can only hope the audio is featured as a Blu-Ray extra. Because Tom spoke for millions of people in the audio that was released yesterday and many of us are here to support him.