TORONTO — Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis, who resigned from the Church of Scientology in 2009, has publicly praised actress Leah Remini for doing the same.
“I can’t express how much I admire Leah,” Haggis wrote in the Aug. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. “Her parents, family and close friends were almost all Scientologists; the stakes for her were so much higher than for me. Her decision to leave was so much braver.”
Remini, 43, confirmed in early July that she left Scientology after about three decades. According to the New York Post, the King of Queens star walked away after allegedly being subjected to interrogations and “thought modification” for questioning the leadership of David Miscavige.
Remini later told People: “I believe that people should be able to question things. No one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can and cannot talk to.”
Church of Scientology spokesperson Karin Pouw told Global News: “The allegations of ‘interrogations’ and ‘thought modification’ are absurd and pure nonsense. Under the 25-year leadership of Mr. Miscavige, the Church is enjoying tremendous expansion.”
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Pouw said the Church had no comment on Remini’s decision.
Haggis, the London, Ont.-born director of Crash and In the Valley of Elah, said he spoke with Remini in late July via telephone.
“It was easy to tell she had been terribly hurt and shaken by the events of the last weeks,” Haggis shared in The Hollywood Reporter. “That said, Leah is an incredibly strong woman and will get through this with the help of her family and her true friends. She is kind and generous and loyal; she has always cared more about others than herself.”
Haggis recalled how Remini reached out to him after he stepped away from Scientology, a religious organization that counts stars like Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley as members.
“Leah got in trouble because of me, because when I was ‘declared’ a ‘Suppressive Person’ and shunned, she came to my defense — without me ever knowing it,” he wrote. “The fact that she fought within the system so resolutely for so long, never making her feelings public, is a testament to how much she believed in the basic goodness of her friends and the institution.
“I will forever be grateful to her.”
Update: The Church of Scientology posted an open letter on Wednesday in response to Haggis’ article.
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