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Glenn Close has opened up about growing up as part of a cult.
The 67-year-old actress was taken into the religious right-wing cult Moral Re-Armament by her father, Dr William Taliaferro, when she was just seven years old. Glenn stayed in the cult until the age of 22, and she has now spoken about how the experience has shaped her life today. “For years, I wouldn’t trust any of my instincts because my beliefs had all been dictated to me,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
‘For years, I wouldn’t trust any of my instincts because my beliefs had all been dictated to me’
“You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire. 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.”
Glenn lived at the organisation’s headquarters in Switzerland for a brief period, before she eventually left the cult in the 1970s.
And while she kept the details of her departure in a minimum in the interview, Glenn said that it took her a long time to get over her time in the organisation after she enrolled at the College of William & Mary for the next stage of her life.
“I would have dreams because I didn’t go to any psychiatrist or anything,” Glenn said. “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 cut ties with the group when she left and has nothing more to do with them for the past 40 years. She spoke about her experiences as she promoted her upcoming appearance in Broadway play A Delicate Balance, which premieres next week.
“They knew that was it,” she said. “I had nothing to do with them from that point. And I wouldn’t have anything to do with them.”
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