Lauer: You just said something that made me think about something.  And if you get out there and talk about it, it kind of takes away a lot of their power to make stuff up.  Doesn't it?  Because you're telling the real story.  Where does it leave them to go?

Cruise: Yeah.  But here's the point.  I don't even get into that game.  I'm just living my life, Matt.  It's something that — I mean, I'm living my life.  And I'm doing the best that I can, and doing it in a way that I feel is right. I like hearing good news, you know.  I like hearing, you know, if something good happens to you, it's nice.  I like sitting here talking to you. 

Lauer: If you like hearing it, you must want to share it, too.

Cruise: Yeah. 

Lauer: So, when you hear the cynics, Mr. Cruise, and you've heard 'em, who say, "This is publicity for a movie, this relationship," or "This is Tom Cruise in his 40s trying to become or stay relevant for a younger audience, and that's why he's out there talking about this relationship with this lovely young lady,” who happens to be sitting right over there.  How do you respond to that?

Cruise: You know what?  There's always cynics.  There always has been.  There always will be.

Lauer: You laugh about it, or does it just bug you?

Cruise: No. I have never worried, Matt, about what other people think and what other people say.

Lauer: Katie, close your ears for a second, okay?  You have said that Katie is the real thing.  She is sensational, she is magnificent.  Can you explain to me what she's brought to your life that hasn't been brought to your life in the past?

Cruise: I don't want to compare things.  I just say—

Lauer: I know—

Cruise: No, no, no.  Because, you know, it — but what it is, it's that thing where you just — in life, when it just happens, Matt.  You know?  It just — you meet someone.  And it's — I can't even describe it.

Lauer: Katie has mentioned that she is embracing, or at least exposing herself and opening herself up to, Scientology.  At this stage in your life, could you be with someone who doesn't have an interest?

Cruise: You know, Scientology is something that you don't understand.  It's like, you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist, okay. Scientology is something—

Lauer: So, it doesn't replace religion.

Cruise: It is a religion.  Because it's dealing with the spirit. You as a spiritual being. It gives you tools you can use to apply to your life.

We asked Cruise to explain his recent comments regarding Brooke Shields. Cruise created a firestorm when he criticized Shields for revealing that she went into therapy and took antidepressants to deal with her postpartum depression. Cruise has said that, as a Scientologist, he doesn't believe in psychiatric medicine.

Cruise: I've never agreed with psychiatry, ever.  Before I was a Scientologist I never agreed with psychiatry. And when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I understood more and more why I didn't believe in psychology.

And as far as the Brooke Shields thing, look, you got to understand, I really care about Brooke Shields. I think, here's a wonderful and talented woman.  And I want to see her do well.  And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science.

Lauer: But Tom, if she said that this particular thing helped her feel better, whether it was the antidepressants or going to a counselor or psychiatrist, isn't that enough?

Cruise: Matt, you have to understand this.  Here we are today, where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people, okay, against their will, of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs.  Do you know what Aderol is?  Do you know Ritalin?  Do you know now that Ritalin is a street drug?  Do you understand that?

Lauer: The difference is —

Cruise: No, no, Matt.

Lauer: This wasn't against her will, though.

Cruise: Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt —

Lauer: But this wasn't against her will.

Cruise: Matt, I'm asking you a question.

Lauer: I understand there's abuse of all of these things.

Cruise: No, you see.  Here's the problem.  You don't know the history of psychiatry.  I do.

Lauer: Aren't there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs?

Cruise: All it does is mask the problem, Matt.  And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem.  That's what it does.  That's all it does.  You're not getting to the reason why.  There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

Lauer: So, postpartum depression to you is kind of a little psychological gobbledygook —

Cruise: No.  I did not say that.

Lauer: I'm just asking what you, what would you call it?

Cruise: No.  No.  Abso— Matt, now you're talking about two different things.

Lauer: But that's what she went on the antidepressant for.

Cruise: But what happens, the antidepressant, all it does is mask the problem.  There's ways, [with] vitamins and through exercise and various things...  I'm not saying that that isn't real.  That's not what I'm saying.  That's an alteration of what I'm saying.  I'm saying that drugs aren't the answer, these drugs are very dangerous. They're mind-altering, antipsychotic drugs.  And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world. The thing that I'm saying about Brooke is that there's misinformation, okay.  And she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry.  She doesn't understand in the same way that you don't understand it, Matt.

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