The Backstreet Boys member recalls freaking out when he was left in a locked room to watch a Scientology movie, claiming he was subjected to the church's 'brainwashing technique.'

• Feb 4, 2021

AceShowbiz - Backstreet Boys star A.J. McLean was turned off ever becoming a Scientologist after a strange visit to the Church's "megacentre" in Los Angeles.

The pop star took a tour of the place shortly after it opened because he was curious about the big building that had opened in his neighbourhood.

"I was living in Los Feliz, right down the street from the megacentre of Scientology, so I was curious," he said during an appearance on the "Pretty Messed Up" podcast. "I didn't know what it was, I didn't know anything about it. But I wanted to not go alone, so I took a friend with me."

"They brought us to this media room and they sat us down and they said, 'Would you mind watching this short film?' And we watched this short film - it was about 15 minutes long. Then I said, 'OK, well, that was interesting,' and we went to leave and the door was locked. They wouldn't let us out and they replayed the same film again... They played it three times until someone heard me knocking."

A.J. didn't feel he and his pal were left in the locked room by accident, adding, "It seemed like a brainwashing technique."

A.J. McLean was not the only star having a brief encounter with Scientology.

Tiffany Haddish revealed in 2019 that she was once approached by a member of the church when she was homeless. "They were like, 'If you stay here, we'll pay you $50 a month and you'll have a roof over your head and you can help us in Inglewood and the South Central area (in Los Angeles).' Because I guess they didn't have any people like me in their organization," she said.

She then signed a contract with them, "The contract was like a billion-year contract or something, which I thought was crazy, but I was like, 'Whatever. I need a place to stay.' "

But a bunk bed was her last straw. "They took me where (people) sleep - 'The Barracks,' they call it - and it was bunk beds, and I don't do bunk beds," she said. "So I threw a fit and they tore my contract up and they put me out."