"Everyone has a right to vote their conscience," the actors says in an exclusive statement

Tom Hanks is rethinking his comments about Mormons who supported Proposition 8.

Last week, the star, who is an executive producer for HBO’s controversial series Big Love about a group of polygamist Mormons, spoke out about the religious group’s involvement in passing the California law, which bans same-sex marriage.

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“The truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen,” Hanks told Foxnews.com at the show’s premiere in Los Angeles last Wednesday. “There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them.”

A spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Kim Farah, took offense at Hanks’s comments, telling FOX News, “Expressing an opinion in a free and democratic society is as American as it gets.”

Now, in a exclusive statement to PEOPLE through his representative Leslee Dart, Hanks is softening his stance.