Elisabeth Moss on how The Handmaid's Tale aligns with her Scientology beliefs: "It's a complicated thing"

They (a proverb? the internet? someone smart, probably) say that wisdom is the ability to hold two competing ideas simultaneously, which is why fans of The Handmaid’s Tale might be the wisest motherfuckers of all. For instance: Elisabeth Moss is phenomenal on the series, which is a fantastic and eerily familiar tale about the societal oppression of women and marginalized groups. Scientology is a dubious religion with troubling views of mental illness and the LGBTQ community. Moss is a Scientologist, and thus the competing ideas co-exist. Sort of. While promoting her role in the new Alex Ross Perry film Her Smell, Moss spoke with The Daily Beast about the perceived clash between the views espoused by her religion and the hit Hulu series in which she plays a rebellious woman living in an oppressive dystopian society ruled by violent misogynists.
Moss has been criticized previously for what some believe is hypocrisy on her part; as a member of a religion that has a history of being against members of the LGBTQ community, it seemed strange to many viewers that Moss would be chosen to lead a series that takes a critical view of a patriarchal society that violently oppresses that very community. In the new interview, Moss expands on her previous defense in a series of circuitous answers that fall short of directly confronting the core issue–notably, Moss contends that The Handmaid’s Tale and its themes “lines up so perfectly parallel with” her own beliefs. She repeatedly (and perhaps wisely) emphasizes a separation between her beliefs and those of the Church Of Scientology: