10 Movie Characters Created As A F**k You To Real People

5. The Master's Lancaster Dodd Ridicules The Creator Of Scientology

Who The Character Is: Played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lancaster Dodd is the portly, vainglorious leader of The Cause, a new-age religion that believes in past lives and the re-energisation of souls. In 1950s America, alcoholic ex-Navy man Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) is taken under Dodd's wing, where he learns not to question The Cause and to enforce harsh measures upon those who do. Who He Really Is: Without question, Dodd is Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard. Lancaster manages to simultaneously act as a f**k you to Scientology and the hold it has over Hollywood on the whole, as well as the current heads of the church who perpetuate the myth that Scientology is anything more than a money-making scheme designed to entice the vulnerable. Writer-director PT Anderson screened The Master for friend and renowned Scientologist Tom Cruise prior to the film's release, and Cruise's vague approval of the movie (save for a scene or two) might have been the only thing that stopped the church from attempting to block it.