OR Allison Mack43, is attempting to retell her own story. Two years after being released from federal prison, the former Smallville star is speaking publicly for the first time about her role in heresy NXIVM, an organization that presented itself as a “self-improvement” program ended up becoming one of the most prominent sexual cults in the US.
In the seven-episode Allison After Nxivm podcast produced by Canadian broadcaster CBC, Allison Mack describes how she ended up using her image as an actress to attract women to the cult of Keith Raniere, who has been sentenced to 120 years in prison for sexual exploitation and extortion in USAas the Guardian and the Hollywood Reporter write.
“I was excited by the power I felt when I saw these young, beautiful women looking at me and listening to me,” Mack admits on the podcast. “And yes, the sexual aspect of it all was fascinating.”
She admits she “exploited” her publicity from Smallville, which she describes as a “tool of power” to convince other women to join NXIVM, where some were branded with a red-hot iron with Raniere’s initials and forced to have sex with him.
From Smallville to the NXIVM trap
Mack says she came into contact with NXIVM through her Smallville co-star, Christine Crook, who led her to an early seminar that was billed as “life coaching” in Vancouver. At the time, the two actors were around 25, living in New York and looking for new meaning in their careers and lives.
According to Mack, Crook told her about a “lesson in the science of joy” and a system of “coaches,” a “vanguard” and a “prefect” — the titles then used for founder Keith Raniere and co-founder Nancy Saltzman. Mak attended a first seminar with Saltzman and gradually joined the guru’s inner circle.
She says in the podcast that Raniere introduced her to a “physically intimate” relationship with him as a way to help her overcome the effects of sexual abuse she says she suffered in her childhood. Little by little, she argues, she was “indoctrinated” and came to play an active role in coercing other women: pressuring them to obey, justifying the system’s violence in the name of “personal growth,” and continuing the pressure despite their fears and objections.
“I wasn’t good… I was abusive”
Today, Mack claims she was “recruited” and “manipulated” herself, but clearly acknowledges that she in turn victimized other women. She describes herself as “emotionally aggressive” and “cold”, admitting: “I wasn’t nice… I was abusive.”
She even refers to a specific incident where she acted as a mediator between Ranier and a reluctant young woman: “My role was to tell her what she should do with him for her own development. The more she said “I’m afraid, I don’t want to”, the more I told her “You have to do it, and the longer you wait, the more serious the consequences will be”. The manipulation started, pressure and pressure again… And then it was like rape.”
Mack was arrested in April 2018 and pleaded guilty in 2021 to charges related to recruiting and manipulating women on Raniere’s behalf. She was sentenced to three years in prison and eventually served just over two, before being released in 2023. She told the court she would “forever regret” her choices and expressed “remorse and guilt”.
Today, through Allison After Nxivm, she tries to decolorize the image of the “predator” that accompanies her, but without denying her responsibility: “People think I’m a pervert. I didn’t experience it that way. People can believe me or think I’m lying, but I feel like I should at least say it out loud, once, for me.”
The case of NXIVM, which has already been presented in the HBO documentary The Vow, thus continues to come back to the fore through the testimony of one of the most emblematic – and controversial – figures in Keith Raniere’s inner circle.