Russell Crowe has said his friendship with Tom Cruise led him to look into Scientology.
The actor spoke about his curiosity about the religion in an interview with People magazine, which published excerpts on its website.
“From a young kid, I was quite interested in religion,” said Crowe, who met Cruise through his friendship with the Australian actor Nicole Kidman, when Kidman and Cruise were married. “We were spending a bit of time together so I thought I’d find out a little bit about what he was into.”
“I found a video in the video store about Scientology and I watched it,” Crowe told the magazine. “It wasn’t that informative.
“But I brought it up with Tom and I thought he was really cool. He didn’t try to sell me a pair of shoes. He just said, ‘If it’s something that interests you, you’ll pursue it.’ And I think that happens with any kind of religion if you come to it by your own discovery.
“I never ended up putting my two cents down on anybody’s table,” Crowe said. “I’ve never graced [Scientology’s] doorway.”
It is not the first time Crowe has discussed his passing interest in Scientology. In 2005 he told Interview magazine that along with watching a couple of videos he had read the self-help book Dianetics by the religion’s founder, L Ron Hubbard.
“It just seems like a religion that is perfect for people who feel like they need a grounding, who feels that the world has run off on them,” he told the magazine. “I’ve discussed this with Scientologists, and they don’t disagree. So, for a certain type of person, that’s great.”
An explosive 2011 story in the New Yorker investigated the close ties between Hollywood and Scientology. Recruiting celebrities to the religion has long been a practice of the church, which established its first Celebrity Centre in Hollywood at the end of the 1960s.
