Elisabeth Moss has spoken out about her Scientology beliefs after a fan compared her religion to the dictatorship at play in The Handmaid’s Tale.
The actress, who was raised as a Scientologist by her parents, rarely speaks about the controversial religion, which she shares with other Hollywood stars including John Travolta and Tom Cruise.
Moss addressed a fan on Instagram, after they commented on a post saying: “Love this adaptation so much. Gilead and Scientology both believe that all outside sources (aka news) are wrong or evil… it’s just very interesting.”
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a powerful right-wing fundamentalist Christian group has seized power in America, forcing women to be categorised according to their fertility. Women who are able to have children must serve as ‘handmaids’ to high up men, using a passage in the Bible as back-up for this new law. Under this new nanny state, women have few rights, and no outside news from the rest of the free world is allowed in.
In response, the Top of the Lake star defended her beliefs, and set the record straight on what Scientology is about: “That’s actually not true at all about Scientology. Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me. The most important things to me probably. And so Gilead and THT hit me on a very personal level. Thanks for the interesting question!”
Moss has previously spoken about Scientology to the Telegraph way back in 2012, saying: “It’s not the same thing as going to church on Sunday. It’s self-applied. It involves reading — you have to make a choice. I think that for me it’s one thing that has helped me at times, and it’s kind of as simple as that.”
This article originally appeared on Grazia.
