Tom Cruise reportedly surprised the NHS team by thanking them for working during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 58-year-old movie star is believed to have secretly visited the ExCel Center in East London last Thursday to “pay personal tribute to the frontline health team”.
It comes after Mission Impossible 7 finally ended after a series of delays and amid allegations, the star yelled at the crew for breaking the rules of social detachment on the set.
Kind gesture: Tom Cruise reportedly surprised the NHS team at the ExCel Center in East London by thanking them for working during the coronavirus pandemic (photo in 2018)
A source told The Sun: ‘He told his team that he would like to pay his personal tribute to the frontline health team who helped put the films back on track.
“They were really shocked to see such a big movie star. Tom wanted to keep it a secret and make sure it was a good surprise for them.
“The world heard his speech against the team on the set and it proved how seriously he took the pandemic.”
MailOnline contacted representatives from Tom Cruise and the ExCel Center for more comments.
Taking it seriously: the 58-year-old actor recently premiered his own film Mission Impossible 7 after a series of delays and claims he ‘barked’ at the team when they broke the rules of social distance on set (photo shot in Rome in October)
The ExCel Center is now an important vaccine center, with another part of the site being used for the new patient rehabilitation facility at NHS Nightingale Hospital.
Speaking in January, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: ‘I want to thank our brilliant NHS team who transformed the Excel Center to be used as a new large-scale vaccination site, in addition to preparing the NHS. The Nightingale Hospital will be opened as a new patient rehabilitation unit in a different part of the center.
“It will be crucial to free up much-needed beds in London hospitals, while speeding up the vaccine’s launch.”
Cruise’s visit comes after the filming of Mission: Impossible 7, after a global marathon interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nice gesture: a source said that Tom “wanted to pay personal tribute to the frontline health team who helped put the films back on track” (photo shot in Venice in October)
Filming on Mission: Impossible 7 was due to start in Italy in February 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic was delayed until July 2020.
Filming began in the UK, moved to Norway and then back to Italy, where they stopped again after 12 crew members tested positive for the coronavirus.
The film was also hit with allegations that five team members ‘gave up’ after Cruise ‘started a second rant’ after his fury over the team violating COVID rules.
Cruise is said to have scolded the team after catching them breaking the UK’s COVID-19 rules at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden.
A source said, after the news of the first explosion was made public, there was “more anger” at the already “tense” production.
It was also previously reported that the star scolded workers who broke the rules of social distance while filming at Warner Bros. Studios.
A finale: Mission: Impossible-7 was hit by a series of delays in filming amid the pandemic (Tom Cruise is seen filming with co-star Hayley Atwell in Rome in October)
Invoking the serious attitude of his character, Ethan Hunt, the actor said to them: ‘If I see you doing this again, you will leave.’
The newspaper said the reprimand was recorded on an audio tape, to which he added: ‘And if anyone on this team does that, that’s it – and so are you and so are you.
– And you, never do that again. We are not going to end this damn movie. ‘
The American actor was furious after seeing the pair less than a meter away from each other on a computer screen.
MailOnline contacted Tom Cruise representatives at the time.
Last month, director Christopher McQuarrie posted on Instagram that the production of Mission Impossible had finally ended in Abu Dhabi and he was returning ‘to London for some finishing touches’.
The delays due to the pandemic, however, mean that the star Cruise’s plan to go straight to the filming of an eighth film had to be shelved, Deadline.com reported.
M: I-7 is scheduled to launch on November 19. But before that, Cruise has another major film debut – his Top Gun sequel.
Top Gun: Maverick opens in theaters on July 2 and Cruise is expected to be available to promote the film worldwide.
That means he can’t start making the eighth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise immediately as he wanted.
The eighth film was listed by Paramount for release on November 4, 2022, but it seems likely that that date will now have to be postponed.
Close to completion: McQuarrie posted an impressive photo and said that filming ended after a season in Abu Dhabi and that he was going to London to do some ‘finishing touches’ on the project