Zack Sharf
Variety
April 29, 2022
Elisabeth Moss addressed her religious ties to the Church of Scientology in more detail than usual during an interview with The New Yorker. The “Mad Men” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” actor has been a Scientologist since before she was a teenager but has rarely spoken about her relationship to the group in press interviews.
“I don’t want to come off as being cagey,” Moss said when the topic of Scientology was first brought up. “If you and I met, just hanging out as friends, I’m, like, an open book about it. [But] I don’t want people to be distracted by something when they’re watching me. I want them to be seeing the character. I feel like, when actors reveal too much of their lives, I’m sometimes watching something and I’m going, ‘Oh, I know that she just broke up with that person,’ or, ‘I know that she loves to do hot yoga,’ or whatever it is.”
Moss’ fans have long had to reconcile her award-winning gifts as an actor with her involvement in Scientology, especially because “The Handmaid’s Tale” casts her as a feminist warrior fighting back against an oppressive and cultish government. The clash between “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Scientology has led to criticism against Moss. When The New Yorker writer Michael Schulman brought up that some fans are “distracted” by her Scientology ties, she responded, “People can obviously hold in their mind whatever they want to, and I can’t control that. If it’s not that, it’s going to be something else.”
“It’s not really a closed-off religion,” Moss said of Scientology. “It’s a place that is very open to, like, welcoming in somebody who wants to learn more about it. I think that’s the thing that is probably the most misunderstood.”
Moss credited Scientology for making her a skilled communicator growing up and encouraged people “to find out for themselves” if they have questions about the group. The actor added, “I’ve certainly been guilty of reading an article or watching something and taking that as gospel. And obviously something like religious freedom and resistance against a theocracy is very important to me.”
Moss also addressed two incidents in which her Scientology faith and Hollywood collided. The first was at the 2017 Television Critics Association Awards. Moss was in attendance as a nominee for “The Handmaid’s Tale” when Scientology defector Leah Remini won an award for her anti-Scientology documentary series. Reports surfaced that Moss left the room during Remini’s speech, but the actor said, “I went to the bathroom. I wish it was more exciting than that.”
“I have never received any request to talk to her,” Moss added about Remini’s claim that the group encourages Moss not to speak with her. “So there hasn’t been an opportunity for her to say that. I don’t know her that well, so it’s not like we were friends.”
The second incident was when Moss won her Emmy for “The Handmaid’s Tale.” During her acceptance speech, Moss thanked her mother for teaching her “that you can be kind and a fucking badass.” A former Scientologist told The Hollywood Reporter afterwards that cursing is one way members communicate “down the tone scale” to average people.
“That pissed me off,” Moss said about the THR report. “That was a really, really big moment for me, and it was a big moment for my mom and me. My mom, who has supported me through the years and been such an incredible mother to both me and my brother. And to tell a lie like that, about that — I didn’t deserve that, and it was wrong.”
Head over to The New Yorker’s website to read Moss’ profile in its entirety.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/elisabeth-moss-scientology-interview-1235254334/
The AdvertiserMarch 3, 2016
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| Tom Cruise |
ACTOR Tom Cruise’s “celebrity” church has funnelled about $2 million through Adelaide to boost the Church of Scientology’s UK operations.
The Church of Scientology Celebrity Center International — the flash Hollywood headquarters of ‘Project Celebrity’ — lent the money to the Adelaide affiliate, which The Advertiser revealed is helping finance the UK operation.
As reported in The Advertiser yesterday the Church of Scientology Religious Education College Inc is using the Church of Scientology’s Adelaide office as a base for its UK operations.
According to financial statements filed with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission COSRECI has an outstanding loan of £953,632 without any agreement on repayments.
The money came from the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood, home of Project Celebrity.
Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard created both Scientology and Project Celebrity, which includes actors Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley and John Travolta.
Scientologists want celebrities on board to spread their word as “prime communicators” of their spiritual message.
The celebrities can stay at the centre, which boasts world-class accommodation and a drug detox centre.
The church says it uses Australia as a base “for historical reasons” and receives “no financial benefit from the arrangement”.
“One of the places of worship in England received a loan from Church of Scientology Celebrity Center International a few years ago to help it provide its religious services,” a spokeswoman confirmed.
South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon has previously detailed his concerns with the Church of Scientology, their practices and financial dealings in letters to authorities.
He said yesterday he would renew his calls for the Australian Taxation Office and the ACNC to investigate the church.
“(The celebrity centre) may have lent millions to the Church of Scientology in Adelaide but it still doesn’t change the fact they’ve been having a lend of South Australians for too many years,” he said.
“I’ve previously written to our regulators here and I’m renewing my calls for a fresh investigation into the Church of Scientology following these revelations. I’m writing to the ATO to investigate this further.”
The church says questions about its financial dealings sound like “someone is mischievously trying to upset people in Australia by creating such lies”.
A spokeswoman said the church paid all the relevant taxes, and that Senator Xenophon “makes ignorant generality to attract media attention”.
“The Church of Scientology already report in explicit detail to the
ATO and ACNC,” she said.
“We have already been investigated in detail, as should every
organisation routinely be to make sure they report accurately. Senator
Xenophon says media savvy sound-bites that don’t pan out in reality.”
The Hollywood centre says Mr Hubbard wanted to form a special church to cater to artists, politicians, leaders of industry, sports figures and “anyone with the power and vision to create a better world”.
Fame and its pressure can be a burden, they say, and quote Hubbard as saying:
“The artist has an enormous role in the enhancement of today’s and the creation of tomorrow’s reality. He operates in a rank in advance of science as to the necessities and requirements of man.”
About $20 million a year is raised by COSRECI, and its financial statements is filed with ACNC in Australia, while the money is all spent in the UK. While there are other charities that send money overseas, most go to poverty-stricken countries or those afflicted by natural disasters.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/tom-cruises-celebrity-church-has-funnelled-about-2m-through-adelaide-to-boost-the-church-of-scientologys-uk-operations/news-story/81347d412220109a5a854b9e4039a30c
