Leah Remini has taken to Twitter to praise the film makers of “Going Clear.” This movie is a controversial HBO documentary by Alex Gibney that examined the Church of Scientology and its black hat secrets.
“Thank you to the brave who did something about it,” Remini wrote. “And, to those who did not have a voice, you do now.”
According to Us Weekly, Remini used to be a member of the group but opted to leave it a couple of years ago for the sake of her daughter, Sofia. Her daughter was already approaching the age when children start the auditing process. She did not want her daughter to grow up under the church’s strong and powerful influence.
“They say they are loving, caring, non-judgmental people,” she told Buzz Feed, as reported by another article from PEOPLE. “But, secretly, they were judging the world for not believing what they believed.”
Although she left Scientology in 2013, citing management issues as the reason for her decision, it was only last year that Remini finally broke her silence about her decision to end her membership with the religion. She said that there came a time when she realized that “everything the church taught me was a lie.”
Shortly after the interview aired, a representative from the Church of Scientology issued a statement to PEOPLE. She called Remini a “self-absorbed” woman with “an insatiable craving for attention” who has been exploiting “her former faith.”
When she and her family left Scientology, a group regarded as a cult by many, they had a brutal falling out with the people whom they used to consider as their closest friends. Kirstie Alley went after her in public, and the friends she gained from the group had “disconnected” from her.
“These are friends that we have had for dozens of years,” Remini told Ellen DeGeneres, as reported by Showbiz411. “But, I have great friends, who are not in the church, who have stood by us. Our family is stronger. We are together. That is all I could ask for.”
Even though she called out the Church of Scientology when she applauded “Going Clear,” she claimed that she does not “want to be known as this bitter ex-Scientologist.” She only did what she did to inform people about the truth and not just to bash anybody to become controversial, according to yet another PEOPLE report.
Director Paul Haggis, who also used to be a member of the group, posted an Instagram picture quote of support for Gibney and the production crew who worked with him and wrote, “So proud of these who stood up despite the consequences.”
These consequences include being slammed by the church, with their work being called a “bigoted propaganda piece” with “at least one major error every two minutes,” as indicated in The Hollywood Reporter.
