Silke Jasso
Smallville actress Allison Mack first became involved with the NXIVM cult after believing co-founder Keith Raniere could help her become a “great actress” again. “I moved to Albany (NXIVM headquarters) to fill that emptiness and find the soul of myself again, if that makes sense, as it had fizzled,” she said back in a 2017 interview with Vanessa Grigoriadis. The interview was finally released on Monday thanks to Gabriel Sherman’s new podcast, “Infamous: Inside America’s Biggest Scandals.”
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“I asked Keith if he would help me become a great actress again because I felt like I was a fraud,” the actress stated.
Back in 1998, 68-year-old Nancy and 62-year-old Raniere Salzman founded NXIVM. It was described as a personal development company that offered several “EXECUTIVE SUCCESS PROGRAMS” ranging from techniques that promote self-improvement with several emphases on bringing “joy into people’s lives.”
The Vow NXIVM Documentary | Part 1 Trailer | HBO
The group made headlines after they garnered the support of Sarah and Clare Brofman, the daughters of philanthropists and Seagram heir, Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
But, the company went on to run into several problems when former members had come forward saying that they had been indoctrinated.
Back in 2019, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison which was upheld by an appeals court earlier this month. Two years later, 40-year-old Mack was sentenced to three years in prison after she pled guilty to charges. The actress admitted to manipulating a woman into becoming sex slaves for Raniere.
While speaking in the podcast, the former actress claimed she was in the scent of the situation. Mack stated that Raniere “ was not the head of harem,” saying, “ “I’m not recruiting young, nubile women to be his sex slaves … You know, it’s ‘The Crucible,’ it’s the McCarthy trials, it’s just like, throwing accusations and spreading like wildfire.”
She went on to say that she felt pressured to leave the group after several friends were concerned that she was involved in a cult. “I’m like, ‘Talk to me for a few minutes. Let me tell you what we’re doing,” she shared. “‘No you’re brainwashed, you’re sick.’”
Actress Allison Mack Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Involvement in NXIVM Sex Cult
“I just was like walking with myself and I was going like, ‘Am I crazy? Am I one of these awful people that you read about that does horrible things and thinks that she’s doing things for God?’ I had a lot of conversations with myself like that,” she noted. Despite several friends telling her how felt about being involved with the organization, she decided to stay with NXIVM.
“Ultimately, I just sat down and I looked at my life and I looked at my relationships and I looked at all of the things I had written journals that I had kept — things that I had done over the last few years. And it was so consistently good,” she stated.
In September 2021, Salzman was given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for her support of Raniere and her commitment to visually target his enemies and critics. A judge sentenced Clare to more than six years behind bars even though the federal sentencing guidelines had called for her to receive up to 27 months in prison.
She went on to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to conceal in Harbor an illegal alien for financial gain, credit card fraud, and fraudulent use of identification.
The NXIVM Episode of “Infamous” from Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media Is set to drop on December 29th.
