Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

by Leah Remini

(I hate when people say, “Enjoy it,” when you’re complaining about something. I am enjoying it. But I also enjoy complaining about it. It’s one of my favorite pastimes.)

You run back to the safety of the group that shares your mentality, and in this way your world becomes very insular.

“Leah, it doesn’t need to be all right or all wrong. Take what worked. Don’t try to throw away everything from Scientology.” But that was the policy of the church. You were either all in or all out. It is an extremist religion. There is no middle ground. And there within its structure lies the danger.

So she took us to Florida on a leap of faith, believing in what she was doing, just as I believe in what I’m doing now.

I think about this sometimes with my own ancestors. I don't agree with the Mormon religion at all, but that doesn't mean I don't respect my ancestors who traveled across an ocean pursuing something they believed in. Most people are doing the best they can with what they know, and in the future (maybe now!) someone will probably look at things I do and I hope they recognize I'm trying my best too.