Michael Cera says Tom Cruise scolded him for talking while taping a segment for the MTV Movie Awards

Tom Cruise takes quiet on set seriously — just ask Michael Cera. 

During a recent visit to the Louis Theroux Podcast, the 37-year-old Phoenician Scheme star recalled an incident in which he was playfully scolded by the Mission: Impossible actor for talking while he was trying to film a segment for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. 

“They did funny intro movie video things that they’d pre-taped… And Tom Cruise did one where he was playing his character from Tropic Thunder, the movie mogul guy,” Cera explained, referring to Cruise’s foul-mouthed antagonist Les Grossman. “So they were shooting all day these little clips of him and that character interacting with various people coming in and out, and I came in and I did a little moment with him on that.”

The Superbad actor explained that it was “surreal” to work alongside Cruise, even just for a brief segment.

“Tom runs the set,” he added. “I was really there for like five minutes, but what I observed was, he was like the first AD on the set…. I mean, he was such a leader.”

Although, the pair didn’t initially start off on the right foot. 

“The first moment I had with him, I arrived, they were shooting, and I was talking to the writer… We were just kind of mumbling while they were shooting, but they could hear us,” Cera said. “It was just like 40 feet away. And Tom Cruise looks at me, I’ve never met him, and they’re in the middle of a take and he looks, and he goes, ‘Is that Michael Cera talking during a f—ing take?'”

He continued, “He was joking, but it was also like, ‘Do shut up,’ you know? But so surreal.”

Cera noted that Cruise teased him about the accidental interruption when they were properly introduced later that day. 

“Then I met him, he is like, ‘Talking during a f—ing take,'” he recalled. “I knew he was playing around, so I was like, ‘Hey man, it wasn’t me, it was the writer.’ He was like, ‘I’m kidding, I’m kidding.’ And I was like, ‘I’m kidding too.'”

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While Cera did not explicitly identify what the take was for, it appears it was a pre-taped segment that kicked off the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. The hilarious opening number saw Cruise’s Grossman reportedly hold Cera hostage, test Karate Kid star Jaden Smith’s martial arts skills, and fail to pitch Twilight actors Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson a buddy-cop film called Bad Ass Cops.

Cruise, joined by Jennifer Lopez, went on to complete the intro by crashing a dance number performed by Hangover stars Ken Jeong and Ed Helms. 

And, as it turns out, it might not be the last time we see Les Grossman. In May, Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he and Cruise have been having discussions about a potential a spinoff for the character.

“The conversations we’ve had about Les Grossman are so fucking funny,” McQuarrie said. “[Cruise and I are] talking about it, we’re having very serious conversations about it, and how best to do it. It ultimately comes down to what that character is.”

Watch Cera recall working with Cruise in the clip above.