Leah Remini isn’t hiding her disapproval of how Laura Prepon chose to address her exit from the Church of Scientology. In an interview with Daily Blast Live Tuesday, Remini, a vocal former Scientologist, was asked about the Orange Is the New Black actress revealing last month that she was no longer a practicing Scientologist. In response, Remini answered she thought Prepon had a “responsibility” to be more public about her exit.
“I got people into Scientology — I promoted it most of my life,” Remini told the outlet. “For those of us who were in the public eye and who were speaking on behalf of Scientology, getting people into Scientology, I feel that we have a responsibility to do the work when we find out that none of those things we were doing was not only [not] helpful, but damaging and very harmful to people’s lives.”
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The Scientology and the Aftermath alum continued that she had “reached out” to Prepon to explain her point of view and urge her to speak out, but added that “not everybody who has a voice uses it.” The King of Queens actress continued that “not everybody feels that they have a responsibility” to be as vocal as she has been about the Church’s allegedly harmful practices. “Some people, like Laura, feel they don’t have a responsibility to speak out,” she continued. “Do I respect it? I mean, not really.”
Prepon revealed she was no longer practicing Scientology in an August interview with PEOPLE. “I’ve always been very open-minded, even since I was a child,” she explained. “I was raised Catholic and Jewish. I’ve prayed in churches, meditated in temples. I’ve studied Chinese meridian theory. I haven’t practiced Scientology in close to five years and it’s no longer part of my life.”
The That ’70s Show alum, who shares daughter Ella, 4, and a son, 19 months, with husband Ben Foster, added that becoming a mother had her “reflecting so much” on her own upbringing. “I was forced to look at a lot of things in my life that I wasn’t looking at before,” she said at the time. “If motherhood has taught me anything so far, it’s that something can work out for a period of time and then you move on and evolve from that.”
