Pegg’s casually dropped bombshell and awkward online disclaimer may have given us the most chilling glimpse behind the Cruise curtain we’ve seen in years.

Top mates … Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for CinemaCon

f you were online at all this weekend, you may very well have noticed an interview that Simon Pegg gave to The Times (£). It didn’t offer much new information when it comes to Pegg (he had an alcohol problem, he wants to be taken seriously, he has tattoos now). However, it did appear to reveal something new about Pegg’s frequent co-star Tom Cruise: he is compulsively unable to display contrition.

“The best thing he taught me is never to accept responsibility for a mistake,” Pegg said. “If something goes wrong and it’s his fault, he’ll flatly deny it. And then if someone corrects him, instead of saying sorry, he’ll just say: ‘Yeah,’ and wink at me … He maintains his authority by never being to blame for anything.”

This in itself is interesting. For decades now, Cruise has managed to maintain an aura of mystique, and this has helped him to become the perfect movie star. Nobody really knows anything about him, and this allows us to project all our hopes and aspirations on to him. In fact, the one time his career took a significant dive happened to be the moment where he slipped and let the world in a little too much. His courtship of Katie Holmes was slightly too public. He used interviews as a platform to preach Scientology values. He started jumping on settees on the television. It was all a little unsightly, and it affected his star power.

You’ll notice that Cruise’s recent career upswing has coincided with him shutting the gates again. Interviews with him are rare, and he’d never deign to express a strong opinion about anything in public. And this is why Pegg’s interview went viral. He gave us a peek behind Tom Cruise’s curtain, and in the process appeared to reveal a genuinely horrible personality trait.

‘Yeah, about what I said’ … Pegg and Cruise in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy

Not taking responsibility for a mistake is a bully trait. It’s what Apprentice candidates do. It’s what Donald Trump does. Owning up to something that’s your fault is human, and it’s hard to trust anyone who finds themselves unable to do it. It is, in short, not a good look for Tom Cruise.

And this might explain what happened next. A few hours after the interview was published, Pegg posted a short video to the internet. “I’m currently trending on Twitter for something I said in the Times interview about Tom Cruise never accepting responsibility for his mistakes, like it isn’t just a fucking running joke that we have,” he said, before growling. “Stop being so fucking literal.”

Now, as far as I can see, one of three things happened here. Let’s break it down.

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1. Simon Pegg really was joking in the interview. This is entirely feasible. Perhaps he really does have a running joke where he chides Tom Cruise about his refusal to cop to mistakes. The pair have worked together on several movies now, and may well have developed the sort of rapport where Tom Cruise doesn’t immediately obliterate Simon Pegg’s career and personal life for talking back. However, nowhere in the interview does Pegg even come close to alluding to the fact that this is a joke.

2. His tone didn’t translate. Again, this is entirely feasible. Since the dawn of time interviewees have come to realise that sometimes things that seem fun and lighthearted in person can often come across as uncomfortably blunt in print. Perhaps, for all we know, Pegg spent the interview giggling and winking and saying outlandish things about his friend only to see that, once written down, it looked like a serious evaluation of all of Cruise’s biggest flaws.

3. Simon Pegg got a call. I’m not saying that Tom Cruise’s big red telephone went off as soon as the interview was published and, apoplectic with rage, called Pegg and chewed him out for half an hour about the incalculable brand damage his loose lips caused, which then forced Pegg to issue an awkward response online. And I’m not saying that “Stop being so fucking literal” is as lame an excuse as “I was taken out of context” or “My account was hacked”. But I will say this. If this is what actually happened, and Simon Pegg really did screw up by revealing too much about Tom Cruise, then that response video is an absolute masterclass in not taking responsibility for a mistake. He has taught you well. Bravo.