Elisabeth Moss discussed being a Scientologist in a profile for the New Yorker.
Travis P Ball /Getty Images for SXSW
For
context, Elisabeth's parents joined the organization before she was born, and
she was raised as a Scientologist. Per the New Yorker, she achieved the
"state of Clear" when she was 11 and, more recently, did a
"Purification Rundown" in 2017.
Jeff Vespa / WireImage
/ Getty Images
Elisabeth
has faced criticism for being a Scientologist in the past — especially given
her character in the dystopian series The Handmaid's Tale. Elly Dassas /Hulu /
Courtesy Everett CollectionWhen asked about Scientology by the New Yorker,
Elisabeth replied, “I don’t want to come off as being cagey. If you and I met,
just hanging out as friends, I’m, like, an open book about it.”
Valerie Macon / AFPvia Getty Images
“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.”
Astrid Stawiarz /
Getty Images
When
the interviewer pointed out that people already associate Elisabeth with
Scientology, she replied, “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."
Raymond Hall / GC
Images / Getty Images
"It’s
not really a closed-off religion. 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."
As
for how Elisabeth feels Scientology helped her growing up, she said,
"Communication is something that I obviously use so much, not only in my
job but in my interpersonal relationships as well. That is probably one of the
No. 1 basic things that I grew up learning and grew up using and use every day:
the power of just being able to listen to somebody, of making somebody feel
heard, of not belittling them for what they think or believe, even if you think
it’s wrong."
One of
Scientology's controversies is its alleged "Fair Game" policy, where
those who speak out against Scientology may then be subject to harassment and
surveillance in retaliation. Scientology denies that such a practice is in use.
Stephane
Cardinale - Corbis / Corbis via Getty ImagesWhen asked about how viewers may
reconcile Scientology's alleged abuses with her role in The Handmaid's Tale,
Elisabeth continued, “I would just encourage people to find out for themselves.
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.”
Barbara Nitke /
Hulu / Courtesy Everett Collection
Elisabeth
also addressed when she left the room during the 2017 Television Critics
Association Awards as Leah Remini accepted an award for her docuseries about
leaving Scientology. Leah said of the incident, "I wish I was surprised,
but that is kind of the teachings of Scientology: to not watch or listen to
anything or anyone who speaks out against the abuses of it."
"They
literally run away. It’s really sad to watch it because it’s like I really
don’t mean them any harm, but I know how they feel."
Frederick
M. Brown / Getty Images"I went to the bathroom,” Elisabeth told the New
Yorker about the moment. “I wish it was more exciting than that.”
Frederick M. Brown
/ Getty Images
As
for Leah's claims that Elisabeth is not allowed to speak to her because of the
organization's policy on "acceptable truth," Elisabeth said, "I
have never been approached by her. I have never received any request to talk to
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.”
Charley Gallay /
Getty Images for COS
You can read the full New Yorker profile here.
Elisabeth Moss On
Discussing Scientology: “I Don’t Want People To Be Distracted”
“I don’t want to
come off as being cagey,” Moss, who grew up in the church, told profile writer
Michael Schulman. “If you and I met, just hanging out as friends, I’m, like, an
open book about it.”
But, she added, she
wants to keep distance from her personal life with her performances and her
work. “I don’t want people to be distracted by something when they’re watching
me. I want them to be seeing the character,” she said. “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.”
When Shulman noted
that “people are already distracted by it,” the Shining Girls star said
audiences can “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,” she continued. “It’s not really a closed-off
religion. 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.”
Within the
wide-ranging profile, Moss responds to a number of other things around her
membership in the church, including her involvement with it alongside her
portrayal of June Osborne, the lead of Hulu’s Emmy-winning adaptation of
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which takes place in the fictional
totalitarian regime of Gilead. In the piece, Schulman wrote the “abuses
perpetrated by Scientology — mind control, making family members cut ties with
apostates (a policy known as Disconnection), assigning troublesome members to
hard labor — echo the authoritarian tactics of Gilead. (The Church calls these
allegations ‘false and mischaracterized.’)” — and noted that he had “asked how a
viewer of The Handmaid’s Tale might reconcile these two things.”
“I would just
encourage people to find out for themselves,” she added. “I’ve certainly been
guilty of reading an article or watching something and taking that as gospel.”
At another point in
the piece, the actress addresses a 2017 story from The Hollywood Reporter about
her swearing during that year’s Emmys acceptance speech when the Mad Men star
won best actress in a drama series. The piece quotes Tiziano Lugli, Moss’
former friend who left the church, about language and, more specifically,
profanity’s use within Scientology. A rep for Moss at the time declined
to comment for the story.
Moss says the story
“pissed me off.”
“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.”
The Shining Girls
star also spoke about a moment during the 2017 Television Critics Association
Awards when she left the room as Leah Remini, one of the most high-profile and
outspoken former members of Scientology, accepted her win in the outstanding
achievement in reality programming category for the A&E docuseries Leah
Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. Moss says it wasn’t a direct response to
Remini and that she “went to the bathroom. I wish it was more exciting than
that.”
In a 2017 THRprofile, Remini said she had not crossed paths with Moss because the actress
“believes that she can’t talk to me” and said there is “a thing in Scientology
called ‘acceptable truth.’ It means you only say what’s acceptable to the
public. But she believes that I’m an antisocial personality — because I’ve
spoken out against Scientology. So she isn’t allowed to talk to me. And me
knowing that, I wouldn’t put her in the awkward position.”
In response to
Shulman noting Remini “claimed the group encourages Moss not to speak with
her,” Moss said: “I have never received any request to talk to 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.”
THR has reached out
to reps for Moss and Remini.
Elisabeth Moss
Explains Why She Doesn't Speak Openly About Being A Scientologist Too Often
Elisabeth
MossPhoto: Christopher Polk (Getty Images)
Elisabeth Moss is
one of those celebrities who’s always appeared to be pretty normal—but then you
remember that she’s a Scientologist. Unlike other celebrities, including poster
child for Scientology, Tom Cruise, Moss didn’t get into Scientology after
becoming famous—she was actually raised within the pseudo-religion. But she’s
rarely open about that aspect of her life.
In a new interview
for The New Yorker, Moss gives a rare, candid look into the role that
Scientology plays in her life, and she shares why she chooses not to talk about
it too much.
“I don’t want to
come off as being cagey,” she explains. “If you and I met, just hanging out as
friends, I’m, like, an open book about it.” But, she added, “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.”
When told by interviewer
Michael Schulman that people are “already distracted by it,” Moss politely
responds, “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.”
She adds, “It’s not
really a closed-off religion. 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.”
Schulman also asks
how viewers of The Handmaid’s Tale could reconcile with her being part of a
religion that has so many reported instances of abuse. “I would just encourage
people to find out for themselves,” says Moss. “I’ve certainly been guilty of
reading an article or watching something and taking that as gospel.”
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She continues, “And
obviously something like religious freedom and resistance against a theocracy
is very important to me.”
You can read the
rest of the interview at The New Yorker.
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