The 67-year-old actress reveals she was moved into a religious cult by the age of seven and didn't leave until she was 22.
- Oct 16, 2014
AceShowbiz - Glenn Close opens up about being raised in a cult in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter for its latest issue. Glenn reveals she was moved into a religious cult when she was 7 and didn't leave until she was 22 years old.
"[For years], I wouldn't trust any of my instincts because [my beliefs] had all been dictated to me," the "Damages" star tells the publication. Glenn's late father Dr William Taliaferro Close brought their family into the headquarters of the religious group known as the Moral Re-Armament in Caux, Switzerland.
"You basically weren't allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire," the "Guardians of the Galaxy" actress shares, "If you talk to anybody who was in a group that basically dictates how you're supposed to live and what you're supposed to say and how you're supposed to feel, from the time you're 7 till the time you're 22, it has a profound impact on you. It's something you have to [consciously overcome] because all of your trigger points are [wrong]."
In the 1970s, Glenn finally left Moral Re-Armament. She says, "Many things led me to leave. I had no toolbox to leave, but I did it... I'm not going to go into [the details of leaving]. You can't in an interview."
At the age of 22, Glenn made her way to the College of William & Mary, but she was still haunted by her youthful experiences. "I would have dreams because I didn't go to any psychiatrist or anything," she reveals, "I had these dreams, and they started with betrayal, a sense of betrayal, and then they developed into me being able to look at these people and say, 'You're wrong. You're wrong.' And then the final incarnation of those dreams was my being able to calmly get up and walk away. And then I didn't have them anymore."
Glenn claims she has had no contact with the group since she left the place over four decades ago. "They knew that was it," she says, "I had nothing to do with them from that point. And I wouldn't have anything to do with them."
She has since forgiven her father for her upbringing. "I always thought, the way life works, the burden of forgiveness is on the child," the "Anesthesia" actress shares, "That's the way it goes. Forgiveness is probably the most revolutionary concept there is right now in our world. Because without forgiveness, you just perpetuate what has been before. You [have to] say, 'It's going to stop with me.' "
Glenn can be seen back on Broadway for the first time in nearly 20 years in a revival of Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance". She stars along with John Lithgow and Martha Plimpton. The play is set to begin previews on October 20 at Golden Theatre in New York City.
