John Travolta won't watch 'Going Clear' documentary, defends Scientology
John Travolta arrives at the opening ceremony of the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on June 28, 2013 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Credit: Getty Images / Matej Divizna
Two-time Academy Award nominee and high-profile Scientologist John Travolta says he has no plans to watch the controversial HBO documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," which premiered on March 29.
"No, I haven't" seen it, Travolta told the Tampa Bay Times Monday, "and I don't really care to." He added, "I've been so happy with my [Scientology] experience in the last 40 years that I really don't have anything to say that would shed light on . . . [a documentary] so decidedly negative."
"Going Clear," which is directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side"), is based on the book by Lawrence Wright and profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, whose adherents have included such celebrities as Travolta, Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley and "Mad Men" star Elisabeth Moss. The film casts Scientology in a critical light.
Travolta, 61, who stars in the upcoming crime drama "The Forger," said, "I haven't experienced anything that the hearsay has [claimed], so why would I communicate something that wasn't true for me? It wouldn't make sense, nor would it for Tom, I imagine."
He added that without his beliefs, he "wouldn't have made it" through his own hard times, which included the 2009 death of his 16-year-old son, Jett, following a seizure while on a family vacation in the Bahamas.
NBC's "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend satirized Scientology with the "Neurotology Music Video" sketch, in which the cast sang the "praises" of a religion where "aliens live inside of our minds." The line was a reference to "the thetan," a spirit that according to Scientology "uses its mind as a control system between itself and the physical universe."
The Church of Scientology was founded by late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard after the 1950 publication of his "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health."
