Which of Brad Pitt’s Famous Ex-Girlfriends (Allegedly) Brought Him Into Scientology?
Brad Pitt is one of many celebrities in Hollywood who aren’t into Scientology. The star who broke into the limelight in 1991 thanks to his role in Thelma & Louise has been in several relationships.
While each had its own fair share of drama, one almost got him to change his faith. So which of Pitt’s famous ex-girlfriends allegedly brought him into Scientology?
Inside Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis’s relationship
Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt met while working on the 1990 TV movie Too Young to Die. However, they didn’t start dating until after filming for the movie wrapped up. At that time, Lewis was 17 years old. Pitt, older than her by a decade, was 27. Lewis said she had already seen Pitt’s work before and liked him as an actor.
The pair reunited in Kalifornia two years later. They were thrilled to work together. “We’re like at the point in love where we just like to see each other every single day, and we don’t get bored with each other,” Lewis gushed to the LA Times in 1993.
Pitt told the publication that he enjoyed working with Lewis again because he got to “to a scene and then go over and grab the one you love.”
The actors said although they yearned to work together, they mostly did it for vacation. Pitt and Lewis lived together for three years, but their love did not last. They ended up parting ways three months after the LA Times interview published.
Brad Pitt took two classes in Scientology before realizing it was not for him
Whenever Scientology comes up, most people immediately think of its top cadet Tom Cruise. However, others think back to when his ex-wife Katie Holmes managed to escape the church by obtaining a divorce and becoming one of the few people to leave successfully.
Cruise might be the face of the church, but there was a time Scientology actively wanted Pitt to join their ranks. During his time dating Lewis, Pitt established himself as a bankable lead. The church wanted in and had the perfect leeway: his romance with Lewis.
The Hysterical Blindness star was born into the church and began practicing it right around the time she and Pitt began dating. Lewis reportedly tried to get Pitt to join by introducing him at the Celebrity Center in Portland. In her book, Scientology: Abuse at The Top, ex-Scientology official Amy Scobee said the Se7en actor completed two courses in July 1991 and May 1993.
According to his supervisor in the church, Pitt experienced two stages of training. One involved sitting in a classroom and enduring verbal abuse; another involved sitting in a sauna for about five hours every day with a 15-year-old “twin” or support partner.
Pitt may have come to his senses, left, and has never publicly spoken about his experience. In 1995, he hinted to Vanity Fair about Lewis’s involvement in the church. Pitt said, “I don’t want to go into an explanation. She has her own views, and I respected those views.”
According to Scobbee, the church tried to bring him back. The Oklahoma native was “high on the church president’s list of stars.”
Juliette Lewis doesn’t identify as a Scientologist
Lewis confirmed in 2010 that she was still an active Scientologist. In 2015, she expressed her annoyance about the misconceptions surrounding the church and her. The now-49-year-old said, “Whatever people’s misconceptions are of me, I think it’s cute. I roll with it.”
However, Lewis might have changed her tune. In 2021, she said she doesn’t identify as a Scientologist in an interview with The New York Times. Lewis, whose parents are also Scientologists, called herself “a spiritualist.”
