Don't make Danny Masterson angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. And apparently the easiest way to set the That 70's Show star off is to rake Scientology over the coals. The usually reserved actor took to Paper Mag to aggressively defend the Hollywood-endorsed religion, and also proselytize about Scientology's misunderstood philosophies as a direct response to Alex Gibney's controversial HBO documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, which premiered last month at Sundance to equal amounts of praise and protest.
Masterson, who admitted to not having seen the doc, vocalized his feelings regarding Going Clear and anyone who is critical of his ideology:
"I heard about that documentary — the documentary where they interviewed eight people who hate Scientology. Should be pretty interesting. I wonder if Sundance would allow a documentary of, like, eight people who hate Judaism. But, you know, my religion's fair game, I guess, 'cause it's new."
It's difficult to condemn a film you haven't seen, so Masterson decided to shift the focus on what he sees as Scientology's contribution to human consciousness:
"Oh, you have PMS disorder, you have caffeine-addict disorder, you have mathematics disorder; here, take Prozac' — what the f— is that? Scientology handles those things, those mental problems that people have. It gets rid of them. It gets rid of them by that person doing it for themselves. That's the solution to depression, not f—in' Prozac and whatever other pill that makes the kid then walk into a goddamn school and kill other kids."
Masterson insisted his passionate defense isn't a byproduct of indoctrination, as he ended the interview with a succinct message to the haters:
"[I'm] a spiritual being who likes to understand why things happen in the world. ... So if that's weird, then, well, you can go f— yourself."
I'd love to hear deacon Masterson's thoughts on Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master now.
