Russell Crowe Recalls Asking Tom Cruise To Tell Him More About Scientology

Russell Crowe said he was once interested in scientology and approached Tom Cruise, a known scientologist actor about it. He said he eventually did not pursue it.

In an interview with People magazine, Crowe recalled a time when he was interested into joining the Church of Scientology. As a result, he went to Cruise about it. At the time, Cruise was still married to Nicole Kidman. He said as a young kind, he was particularly enamoured with the topic of religion. He said when he met the actor, they spent some time hanging out and he used these times to know more about Scientology. Crowe said he tried to educate himself about the Church by watching a video about it to no avail. The video he found in a video store was not as informative as he wanted so he asked Cruise to discuss the religion to him and Cruise was cool to do it. He said Cruise did not force him to join the Church. Cruise just told him to pursue it if he was interested. Crowe did not do so and said he never “graced” the Church’s doorway.

Crowe’s revelation is timely. Scientology is in the line of fire since the year started after HBO released a documentary “Going Clear” painting the Church in negative light. The documentary is based on Lawrence Wright’s book. According to the documentary, the Churhc practices all types of abuse, from physical abuse to mental abuse. Forced labor is also accused of the Church. The documentary also claimed that the Church is controlling celebrities such as Cruise and John Travolta. The Church is said to use influential stars to convince people to join as well as raise money. The Church denied all these negative allegations and labeled the documentary as a "bigoted propaganda," that is largely based on "falsehoods."

The director of the said documentary Alex Gibney however, said Cruise, who is a well known Scientologist, can be considered the “public face” of the Church, and as such, has the duty to respond and clarify the allegations made. According to Gibney, Cruise ignoring these accusations of abuse is “irresponsible” because on other occasions, he is “espousing his beliefs.”

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