Joy Lenz looks back at the moment of her being in a cult. In a recent interview with Variety, the actress revealed that her castmates on ‘One Tree Hill’ tried to save her from the cult while starring in the teen drama. The actress joined the unnamed cult of the show’s 2003 premiere “within a year or two.” Moreover, she discussed being a part of this group One The Hill co-stars included Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton Morgan, Chad Michael Murray, and James Lafferty.
Joy Lenz believed these were the best choices she could make
The 41-year-old said to the outlet, “It was the whisper behind the scenes, like ‘You know, she’s in a cult. For a while, they were all trying to save me and rescue me, which is lovely and so amazing to be cared about in that way. But I was very stubborn. I was really committed to what I believed were the best choices I could make.”
Moreover, the actress revealed that is because “the nature of a group like that is isolation,” which makes “you distrust everyone around you,” the situation “built a deep wedge of distrust” between the actress and the show’s cast and crew.
“As much as I loved them and cared about them, there was a fundamental thought: If I’m in pain, if I’m suffering, I can’t go to any of these people,” she recalled. “So you feel incredibly lonely.”
However, she credits the show One Tree Hill, which saves her in many ways.
“A lot of the people in that group lived there and were in it day after day. So in a lot of ways, One Tree Hill saved my life, because I was there nine months out of the year in North Carolina,” the actress who played Haley James Scott in the show said. “I had a lot of flying back and forth, a lot of people visiting and things like that, but my life was really built in North Carolina. And I think that spatial separation made a big difference when it was time for me to wake up.”
“Somebody’s walking into it, they’re walking in for a reason. There’s something that’s filling a need, it’s filling a void and the best thing that you can do is just build a trust with that person,” she added. “… Sometimes, it’s a long haul and you’ve just gotta keep showing up and you cannot give them a reason to cut you out of their life, because they will in a second. But as far as anything you could say, no. I don’t think anybody could have said anything. I wanted to do what I wanted to do.”
The series got a long run and ended in 2012, meanwhile, Lenz exited the cult “very shortly after” she wrapped.
“I mean, it was like a secret life. I’m on this TV show. I’m living this glamorous, celebrity life — as people see it — and I have a total secret life going on. It was so painful,” she revealed.
Moreover, she says, “I really do want to share so anybody who reads this book is going to be able to go, ‘Oh, I recognize that,’ ‘This is happening to me,’ ‘My pastor just said that the other day,’ ‘My boyfriend keeps doing all the exact same things, that’s so strange. I feel like there’s so much. I just want to squeeze every ounce of help out of this experience. I want this experience to just be the f**king biggest lemon I ever had. Let me f**king squeeze out all the juice for everybody else — we’re gonna make some lemonade.”
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