#908 - Leah Remini

Joe Rogan (0:00)

James is a wild man, you don't understand.

Leah Remini (0:01)

And you're still getting late.

Joe Rogan (0:03)

He's crazy.

Leah Remini (0:04)

You are?

Joe Rogan (0:05)

Three, two, one. We're live, gotta change subjects, Leah Remini. Gotta abandon all that crazy talk we were just talking about. It was, it was definitely good talk.

First of all, it's good to see you.

Leah Remini (0:18)

You too.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

I haven't seen you in a long time.

Leah Remini (0:20)

You look great.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

You do too. I haven't seen you since King and Queen, it's been a long time.

And I found out about, you know, the whole Scientology thing. I knew you were into it back then, but it was one of those things where I'd heard about it.

Leah Remini (0:34)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:34)

And then I met you. I'm like, oh, she's pretty fucking normal for a Scientologist.

Leah Remini (0:38)

Right.

Joe Rogan (0:38)

Well, I met John Travolta once too, and I said the same thing, like, she's pretty normal.

Leah Remini (0:42)

Nice guy.

Joe Rogan (0:43)

Kelly Preston is pretty normal. She's normal.

Leah Remini (0:45)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (0:45)

You know, it's I guess you get deeper, get to know them really well and it might get a little weird.

Leah Remini (0:51)

Yes. Yeah. Because the thing is, Scientologists are good people. They really are. They really, as I did, believed that we were doing amazing things for the world. So they go into it thinking, I'm helping myself and I'm helping others.

But then as you, like you said, as you get more and more, and by the way, you don't really get close to Scientologists when you're a Scientologist.

Joe Rogan (1:17)

When you're a non-Scientologist.

Leah Remini (1:18)

When you're a non-Scientologist, correct. Like, everything that I did and they do is for the purpose of setting a good example, being a good person, being a good friend.

So to get you in. To indoctrinate people. There's a purpose in that. Like I would never tell, when I was in, a non-Scientologist my real problems. It would be kind of bad for the church to ever appear human to a non-Scientologist. It would be setting a bad example. Like it would actually be considered like a transgression.

If I told you, Joe, you know, oh yeah, I'm fighting with my mother, I'm fighting with my husband, or I would never tell you those types of things, because it would be bad PR for the church.

Joe Rogan (2:03)

Wow. So that's something that you're taught.

Leah Remini (2:06)

Correct.

Joe Rogan (2:07)

Now you kind of grew up in it.

Leah Remini (2:09)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (2:09)

How old were you when you?

Leah Remini (2:11)

Nine, I think, when my mother married.

Joe Rogan (2:12)

So you don't even remember pre-Scientology.

Leah Remini (2:14)

A little bit. And you know, what I remember pre-Scientology was, you know, I had a very Catholic Sicilian father who, you know, believed in punishment, believed in not talk, like, did I talk to you? I don't know why you're talking to me. Like that kind of guy. Right. Like my dad sits at the head of the table, and then we don't talk back at all, or, you know.

So that is kind of what I knew. And then we were baptized as Catholics because my mother wasn't really religious. My mother is Jewish, she's, you know, so she, but she didn't have any kind of religion growing up. My father, of course, was Catholic. So we got baptized as Catholics. And the only time we really went to church was with our grandma, we went to visit her in, you know, in the city, and my dad on holidays. So that's really kind of all I remember pre-Scientology.

And my mother, meeting my stepdad, he was in Scientology, and he got her in as well as us.

Joe Rogan (3:12)

Like right away?

Leah Remini (3:13)

Right away. Yes.

Joe Rogan (3:15)

So that was like part of the deal.

Leah Remini (3:16)

Correct.

Yeah. And by the way, Joe, like we went from like, don't talk until you're spoken to, to, hey, we see you as spiritual beings, we want you to talk to us, we want you to communicate, like, you're just, you're not, you're not children, you're, you know, spirits in a little body. And so immediately that kind of indoctrination begins that you're not a child. And so, you know, as children, you have kids, you know, they always want to be grown up. So that that really starts to work this kind of idea that you're an elitist, that your ego becomes kind of stroked as a kid, like you're very powerful and you returned and you came back and you found yourself back. Like, you picked your mother because you knew she would get into Scientology and you're very strongly and you're very strong, Nicole, to my sister.