Rebecca Ferguson Exonerates Tom Cruise and Ryan Reynolds — Who Was the Real Bully?
Mystery bully watch: Rebecca Ferguson clears Tom Cruise, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman—plus Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson—from her viral on-set clash, keeping Hollywood guessing about the real culprit.
Rebecca Ferguson just narrowed the suspect list in her mystery co-star saga, and the internet sleuths are going to need fresh corkboard. She has now publicly ruled out Tom Cruise, Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman as the offender. Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson also addressed the story and sent her nothing but support, which effectively clears them too. The name still is not public, but the pool is getting shallow.
What actually happened, in her words
Back in 2024, Ferguson told a now-viral story about getting dressed down on set by a powerful co-star — the person was number one on the call sheet, which in practice means they had the clout and she did not. She described getting humiliated in front of the crew, leaving set in tears, and then deciding to push back. As she told The Hollywood Reporter, the actor lobbed lines like: You call yourself an actor?
'You get off my set. You can F off. I am gonna work toward a tennis ball. I never want to see you again.'
Translation: she told them to leave and would rather play her scenes to an inanimate marker than to their face — literally acting to the back of a head, or to a tennis ball stand-in, to avoid them. After the story blew up, she said other co-stars called to back her up. The whole thing sparked a weekslong round of guess-who among fans and industry folks, combing every clue for the identity of the bully.
Who is definitely not the person
Ferguson has either explicitly cleared or warmly praised the following co-stars, which takes them off the board. She and others have addressed this across interviews and social posts, including THR, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere:
- Tom Cruise — Mission: Impossible (three films)
- Ryan Reynolds — Life
- Hugh Jackman — Reminiscence
- Emily Blunt — The Girl on the Train (she publicly showed support for Ferguson)
- Dwayne Johnson — Hercules (he publicly showed support too)
- Meryl Streep — Florence Foster Jenkins (Ferguson called her the most humble and kind)
- Michael Fassbender — The Snowman (Ferguson has praised him as an extraordinary actor and a goofy, fantastic guy behind the scenes)
The name game, and why it is messy
With those A-listers off the suspect list, the rumor mill has kept circling names like Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Grant. To be crystal clear: no one has been named by Ferguson, and there is zero confirmation. People bring up Gyllenhaal because he is famed for an intense, immersive process, and some wonder if that energy could spill over. That is a reach unless Ferguson says it herself. Hugh Grant gets mentioned because of a long-cultivated reputation for prickliness — those old post-Notting Hill comments about Julia Roberts have not aged great — but again, this is speculation, not evidence.
Where this leaves things
Ferguson has shrunk the mystery without solving it. She has publicly shut down a handful of obvious guesses, vouched for a few more, and made it clear the bad behavior came from a top-billed co-star who chewed her out in front of the crew. Until she names the person, this stays a Rorschach test for fans. The only sure thing: she stood her ground, kept working, and a lot of her colleagues backed her play.