Was this a product of Cruise’s generosity, or did he have his own selfish reasons for helping out?
Don’t mess with Tom Cruise and his movies.
Cruise has earned a reputation for being one of the most generous celebrities in Hollywood. Soon, very soon, there won’t be a single celebrity in Hollywood who isn’t on the list to receive the famous “Cruise Cake” from the actor every year for Christmas. There won’t even be a single celebrity who hasn’t experienced Cruise’s generosity in some way. He once invited Zac Efron to his home just so he could teach him how to ride a motorcycle, and he sends Dakota Fanning shoes for her birthday every year. His co-stars love working with him, as do most of his staff.
So when we hear that he made a safe environment for everyone involved in Mission Impossible 7 so they could carry on shooting, it’s not really a surprise. He paid for it with his own money, which is so thoughtful. Especially after what happened on set that made him unleash his fury on those who broke the COVID protocols he set in place to allow them to continue filming. George Clooney sided with him, while Leah Remini called it a “Scientology stunt,” unsurprisingly.
But why did Cruise foot the bill to bring everyone back to set? He could certainly afford it. He made $70 million for the first Mission Impossible alone, and his salary has only increased with each film that comes out in the franchise. He might spend a lot of money on himself, but there’s a big chunk of his net worth that goes to other things, including his movies. But one has to question; does his generosity really come from a philanthropic standpoint? Probably, but that doesn’t mean he’s not looking after himself as well.
Cruise’s Worst Nightmare Happened When Production Stopped
Mission Impossible 7 was one of the first films that had to halt production immediately. They were just about to start shooting in Italy, but that country was one of the first countries to shut down when COVID started.
But production was able to start again over the summer of 2020. Simon Pegg, who plays Benji Dunn in the franchise, told Variety in July that the production was set to resume in September. So Cruise wasn’t going to take any more chances and have the film get delayed any further.
He was willing to spend $700,000 to help the film’s production company Truenorth charter two cruise ships from the Norwegian ship company Hurtigruten, just to house both the cast and crew during shooting. It was all part of Cruise’s plan to “keep everyone safe” and to keep everyone in a COVID-free bubble so there wouldn’t be any outbreaks onset and therefore no more delays shooting.
No one in the showbiz industry wants more delays on any project, but if Cruise could expedite the process of the film by making sure there wasn’t an outbreak, he was going to do it. Look at all he does for his films when there isn’t a pandemic. He’s done all of his stunts and has always been extremely dedicated to all of his films.
“We can confirm that Hurtigruten has reached an agreement with the production company Truenorth for the charter of two vessels from the end of August to the end of September. The ships in question are (newly modernized) MS Vesterålen and (the brand new hybrid-powered battery) MS Fridtjof Nansen,” a spokesperson for Hurtigruten said in a statement.
Both ships were brand new. The MS Fridtjof Nansen has a capacity of 530 passengers, and the MS Vesterålen has a capacity of 490 passengers, so the cast and crew were by no means cramped on the ships.
Neither the studios nor Cruise himself has confirmed it was Cruise who forked out the money to pay for the boats, but this is a Cruise film we’re talking about. Of course, it had to be him.
Cruise’s Rant Happened Before He Got The Boats
In December, The Sun released audio of Cruise giving his cast and crew a very passionate talking-to about COVID safety. The speech, which was labeled a rant by the media, received a lot of flak.
Apparently, a couple of crew members were not following the protocol he’d put in place as the film’s producer, and an outbreak started while they were filming in Italy. Cruise warned that if it happened again, those responsible would be fired.
“I’m on the phone with every fucking studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies,” Cruise yelled, as he put it clear that they were “creating thousands of jobs.”
He was very emotional, “telling the crew that the industry is hurting, and most of the industry shut down and that people are losing their homes as a result,” Deadline wrote at the time.
He kind of had a reason to be mad, though. It was sort of a situation of “help me help you.” Cruise was trying to make a movie in a challenging time and trying to keep all the cast and crew in work, but they sort of threw it back in his face when they were unsafe. Shouldn’t it be a good thing that the actor just wanted everyone safe?
At the end of the day, he and the studios were losing money from delays too. So, after all that, the expensive boats were a no-brainer. Cruise probably also wanted to show the world he could film a movie in a pandemic. He wants to film a movie in space, after all. To make sure no one went against protocol, he formed a bubble around everyone, so he knew where everyone had been. It’s quite smart, actually, and totally something Crusie would do. He runs a tight ship, no pun intended.
