In the Early ’90s, Tom Cruise Tried Quietly Introducing Scientology Into Hollywood — & Resurfaced Details Outline the Clash: ‘I Simply Found a System That’s Better’
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In the early 1990s, Tom Cruise wasn’t just shaping his rise as a leading man — he was reportedly trying to bring a Scientology-developed sound method onto major studio sets. Newly resurfaced interviews and industry accounts outline how Cruise pushed for a system called Clearsound and defended it with one line that still echoes decades later: “I simply found a system that’s better.”
According to French outlet 3DVF, Cruise pressed director Rob Reiner during production on A Few Good Men to integrate a proprietary rig linked to Scientology. The setup, known as Clearsound, was described as a way to cut down camera noise and sharpen dialogue. Reiner ultimately declined and continued with standard production methods, but the request captured the moment when Cruise’s faith and his (and Scientology’s) growing power in Hollywood were beginning to overlap behind the scenes.
This wasn’t coming out of nowhere, either. By the late ’80s, Cruise had become a bankable star after Top Gun and The Color of Money. Around the same time, he married actress Mimi Rogers, who introduced him to Scientology. From there, he became one of the church’s most visible members, and its ideas began showing up in his work — not through storylines, but through the tools he preferred to use.
That includes Clearsound. In a 1992 Rolling Stone profile, Cruise said he persuaded the Far and Away team to record his and his then-wife Nicole Kidman’s dialogue using a Scientology-developed audio system. In the same interview, he criticized traditional Hollywood sound practices, saying, “There’s no such thing as a great Hollywood sound system,” and describing some sound departments as “a priesthood” from “another era.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1234944738/tom-cruise-scientology-clearsound-clash/.
