Elisabeth Moss Subtly Goes Against Scientology After Hitting Back At Fans Who Called The Church 'Evil'
Elisabeth Moss has been a fierce defender of Scientology, but may be keeping her distance from the church after years of backlash.
The Handmaid’s Tale star was notably absent from The Church of Scientology’s annual event to celebrate late founder L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, which was held at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida, on Saturday, March 14.
Celebrities, including Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Doug E. Fresh, were seen sitting in the front row in photos from the event shared by The Church of Scientology and reviewed by OK! Magazine and Scientology whistleblower Tony Ortega’s Substack, The Underground Bunker. However, Moss was not visible in the photos despite sitting in the front row in both 2024 and 2025, per The Underground Bunker. Though Ortega initially reported that Moss was in the front row, this was later revised to identify the person as The Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright, who is also a prominent Scientologist.
Moss was once outspoken in her defence of Scientology, hitting back on Instagram in 2017 after a fan asked her if working on The Handmaid’s Tale made her “think twice about Scientology.” The fan suggested that there was a similarity between the totalitarian world of the series and Moss’s controversial religion, saying, “Both Gilead and Scientology both believe that all outside sources (aka news) are wrong or evil… it’s just very interesting.”
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“That’s actually not true at all about Scientology,” Moss responded, per The Guardian. “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 was raised as a Scientologist, but has historically been pretty tight-lipped about her involvement with the church. “I don’t want to come off as being cagey,” she told The New Yorker in 2022. “If you and I met, just hanging out as friends, I’m, like, an open book about it.” But, she added, “I don’t want people to be distracted by something when they’re watching me. I want them to be seeing the character. I feel like, when actors reveal too much of their lives, I’m sometimes watching something and I’m going, Oh, I know that she just broke up with that person, or, I know that she loves to do hot yoga, or whatever it is.”
“It’s not really a closed-off religion,” Moss added, “It’s a place that is very open to, like, welcoming in somebody who wants to learn more about it. I think that’s the thing that is probably the most misunderstood.”
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