A foundation that shaped them. Katherine Heigl, Amy Adams and Ryan Gosling are among the A-listers that grew up in the Mormon church.
Heigl’s family converted to the religion after her brother Jason died in 1986 of injuries suffered in a car accident.
“Both my parents felt a great desire for answers, and they found an answer in the Mormon church — or answers they could live with, anyway, because there really are none,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum told Vanity Fair in January 2008. “I give my parents unbelievable credit for pulling it together, and I give the Mormon church a lot of credit for helping them to do that.”
Although the 27 Dresses actress is no longer practicing, her upbringing as a Latter-day Saint influenced her relationship with Josh Kelley, whom she wed in December 2007.
“I … didn’t want to live together before we were married. I still have enough Mormon in me — not a lot, but enough — that I wanted to keep that a little bit sacred,” she told the outlet.
Adams, for her part, has also been candid about how the religion influenced her worldview.
“I grew up as a Mormon and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I’m afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie,” she told The Sun in June 2013. “I’m very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over, too. You can’t really misbehave without feeling badly about it — at least, I can’t.”
The Enchanted star added that Mormonism’s strict rules — which include a ban on drinking coffee and alcohol — remain a source of guilt.
“Even when I go out with friends and we go overboard at bars or clubs, I wake up the next morning feeling a bit conflicted about having had too much fun,” she shared at the time.
Gosling, on the other hand, has said that he never identified with the theology, despite growing up in the church.
“I wasn’t really Mormon, my parents were,” the Notebook actor told Beliefnet in October 2007. “My mom was really cool. She said, ‘This is an option, but this isn’t the only option. This is an idea, but this isn’t the only idea. You have to find your own truth.’ I never really could identify with it.”
The Canada native added that there were “good things” about his religious upbringing.
“[It] socialized me at a young age,” he explained. “You have to pray in public, shake a lot of hands, talk in public, sing in church, stuff like that. It has definitely stayed with me.”
Keep scrolling to see which celebrities grew up in the Mormon church — and what they’ve said about the religion: