After audio of Cruise’s rant went viral this week, the movie star received criticism for speaking disrespectfully to his employees. The actor and producer scolded the film’s crew for breaching coronavirus safety protocols on the set of “Mission: Impossible 7,” the Christopher McQuarrie-directed Paramount movie that was hit with a one-week production delay in October after 12 people on set in Italy tested positive for COVID-19. Cruise can be heard swearing at crew members who were standing too close together at a monitor, telling them: “We are not shutting this fucking movie down! Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re fucking gone.”

Clooney said he would have taken a different approach were he in the same position, but added that he didn’t know the full situation. “I wouldn’t have done it that big, I wouldn’t have pulled people out. You’re in a position of power. It’s tricky, you do have a responsibility for everyone and he’s absolutely right about that,” he said. “If the production goes down a lot of people lose their jobs. People have to understand that and be responsible. It’s just not my style to take everybody to task that way.” “It doesn’t help necessarily, to point to specific people in that way, but everybody has their own style,” Clooney continued. “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, I just don’t know if I would have done it quite that personally. But I don’t know the circumstances, maybe he had it 10 or 15 times before.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.