Will Smith defends Cruise's Scientology beliefs

U.S. actor Will Smith poses at a news conference to promote his film "I Am Legend" in Tokyo Dec. 4, 2007. Will Smith went out on a limb the past weekend on "60 Minutes" and Access Hollywood, defending buddy Tom Cruise's belief in Scientology.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Will Smith went out on a limb the past weekend on "60 Minutes" and Access Hollywood, defending buddy Tom Cruise's belief in Scientology.

"What about Scientology do you embrace?" Access Hollywood's Shaun Robinson asked Smith.

"I was introduced, [to] it by Tom and I'm a student of world religion," Smith replied. "I was raised in a Baptist household, I went to a Catholic school, but the ideas of the Bible are 98 percent the same ideas of Scientology, 98 percent the same ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism."

"It seems like it makes you angry that people have attacked him because of what he believes," Robinson said.

"When I sit and I talk with Tom Cruise, he is one of the greatest spirits that I've ever met -– someone who is committed to making the world better," Smith said. "You have people [that] are attacking and wanna fight that don't know nothing — how you gonna not know nothing about Scientology and attack somebody? It's dangerous and it's ignorant.

"How can I condemn someone for what they believe and I believe that God was born from a pregnant virgin?" Will queried.

Smith said it was his cheating first girlfriend when he was 16 that motivated him to become a movie star.

"I was so devastated that she cheated on me and I remember making a decision that she cheated on me cause I wasn't good enough right? And I remember laying in my mother's bed crying and making a decision that if I was the best at everything, that my woman could never cheat on me."

(Agencies)