Tom Cruise and Leah Remini
Ex-Scientologist Leah Remini criticised actor Tom Cruise in a recent Reddit AMA Getty

Popular critic of Church of Scientology, actress Leah Remini, took another shot at Hollywood heartthrob Tom Cruise during a Reddit AMA held on Tuesday night. Not only did the former Scientologist call Cruise "diabolical" but also went on to assert that he is a different person "behind the mask".

Her outspoken criticism against the controversial faith and the 55-year-old actor, however, has sparked another row with the Church.

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"Remini is bent on inciting hate and bigotry against a worldwide religion and its parishioners and she will stop at nothing to grab attention," the Church of Scientology said in a statement to Us Weekly, refuting the The King of Queens star's claims.

The latest controversy erupted when the 47-year-old actress gave a no-holds-barred answer during a Reddit AMA ahead of the premiere of the second season of her A&E show Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath.

When a Redditor asked Remini if one of the most influential members of the Church, Cruise, was a "good person", she did not hold back.

"No! Just going to get straight to it, no! There is a public persona of the guy who looks at you directly in the eye and shakes your hand and hugs you and is an attentive person to you and there's the person behind the mask who is a completely different person," she said.

Explaining her assertion further, she continued, "Someone could say we all have that — what we are to the public and who we are behind the scenes, but the people who are around Tom and work for Tom, not even people who are Scientologists, they will say he is diaboloical [sic]."

"People who've worked with me will say I can be an a**hole – all actors can be. That is different. He's very similar to David Miscavige, they could be twins," Remini added.

However, this is not the first time that the actress has come under fire for her blunt statements against the Church of Scientology. Following various explosive interviews on her A&E reality show, the actress was slammed for allegedly distorting the truth.

"Leah Remini is doing this show for the money, just as she profited from her book. This shows the extent Leah Remini is willing to go to in order to distort the truth about Scientology," the Church had responded to her claims earlier.

IBTimes UK has reached out to Cruise's representatives and is awaiting their response.