Juliette Lewis focuses on music
27/02/2006 11:41  - (SA)  

Hong Kong - Actress-turned-rocker Juliette Lewis says she'll continue to act but it would take an outstanding script to pry her away from touring with her band, Juliette and the Licks.

"For something to take me away from the music right now, it has to be spectacular. I don't want to settle for something less than a really interesting film director," she said in the March issue of Prestige Hong Kong magazine.

Lewis, who named her musical influences as Iggy Pop, Patty Smith, Grace Jones, David Lee Roth from Van Halen and PJ Harvey, said her band has toured on and off for about seven or eight months in the past year.

Lewis, who took part in a drug rehabilitation programme developed by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, didn't directly answer when asked if she was a Scientologist but said that the faith was a positive influence.

"There are temptations. You sometimes get overwhelmed, but there's a lot in Scientology that helps you not get overwhelmed. So whenever I go back home, it's something I go back to, there's always so much to learn," Lewis said.

"Because of all the stuff I've done in Scientology, it made me more fearless and allowed me to listen to my inner artistic voice. In that sense, it's actually made me more of an individual, more expressive, which is very important for an artist," she explained.

Founded in 1954, Scientology teaches that "spiritual release and freedom" from life's problems can be achieved through one-on-one counseling called auditing, during which members' responses are monitored on an "e-meter", similar to a polygraph.

Tom Cruise is another celebrity follower.