“I’m certain there’s some nonsense reply I may give, however I simply do not assume I’ve been well-known sufficient for individuals to care, to be sincere,” Bethany Joy Lenz says of her involvement in what she calls slightly non secular cult whereas starring within the CW hit “One Tree Hill.”
During a Zoom name from the solar porch of her Nashville house, she says her affiliation with the Big House Family was an open secret to castmates when she extricated herself from it in 2012.
But when Lenz, who prefers to make use of her center identify, Joy, casually talked about the group final yr on the present’s rewatch podcast, “Drama Queens,” joking with co-hosts Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton that he ought to have written a guide about it, it made the information. Less than a yr and a half later, “Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult)” will seem on bookstore cabinets on October 22.
It’s a fast flip for publishing, however Lenz had been toying with the thought of writing a guide about her expertise for some time earlier than she talked about it in “Drama Queens.” He had put collectively about 40 pages to assist him course of it, and he drew on these pages, together with years of diaries, as he wrote the memoir.
“It was positively an emotional and psychological dump,” he says. “I do not assume I’d ever wish to write something at that pace once more.”
“Vampire Dinner: Life on a Cult TV Show” by Bethany Joy Lenz
(Simon and Schuster)
The memoir particulars her upbringing in Florida, Texas and the tri-state space round New York City, in addition to her early experiences with faith, together with what she describes as an encounter with God. As a younger an aspiring actress within the early 2000s, Lenz averted the lure of the Hollywood social gathering scene and as a substitute gravitated towards a youth Bible examine group. It was there that she met an enigmatic shepherd who she calls Les within the guide (In an author’s note to her book Simon & SchusterLenz says she has modified names and a few figuring out particulars for readability and to guard the privateness of those that she says are recovering from their time within the cult), who would find yourself turning into the chief of Big House Family.
Lenz largely maintained two separate lives throughout his ten-plus years within the group. This coincided together with his 9 seasons on “One Tree Hill,” which aired from 2003 to 2012. His co-stars had suspicions, he writes, and have been cautious of the cult’s outsized affect on his life, intimately about his funds.
When Lenz left the group, she additionally left her marriage to the pastor’s son, the daddy of her daughter.
“He was so certain that the woman he knew wouldn’t depart,” Lenz writes within the prologue. After reconnecting together with her outdated associates, household and therapists, “I used to be reminded of that different woman I used to be earlier than.”
Lenz may simply have restricted consciousness of his experiences to his internal circle and the occasional Hollywood encounter, the place he writes of experiencing the telling to a few of his friends. But, he says, “I weighed my want for privateness and anonymity with the will to see redemption on the finish of this story and to have the ability to assist individuals. The latter have surpassed the previous.”
In telling his story, he says his purpose is to encourage confidence in others. “I hope individuals can use the guide as a map not directly and discover hope on the finish of their journey,” he says.
This religion, nevertheless, just isn’t essentially non secular. Lenz’s relationship with faith is now much less outlined by guidelines and extra based mostly on curiosity and self-confidence.
He believes wellness tradition has develop into a cult in itself, with meaningless elements of various perception techniques amalgamated into social media-friendly idioms.
“Every time I open Instagram, there’s somebody telling me what to assume, what sorts of issues I can say to myself within the mirror that can make me really feel higher about myself,” Lenz says.
She has her personal concepts about why different actors, together with “Smallville” actor Allison Mack — who served two years in federal jail for intercourse trafficking, intercourse trafficking conspiracy and compelled labor conspiracy associated to her position in NXIVM , a corporation that claims to be a self-made support group – have been prone to fringe non secular leaders.
“Actors are empathetic and earn some huge cash. You could not be a brighter goal for a narcissist,” he says matter-of-factly. Ultimately, “everyone seems to be able to indoctrination at any time.”
Right now, Lenz is concentrated on artistic endeavors.
In “Dinner for Vampires,” she writes that she labored on a musical based mostly on Nicholas Sparks’ “The Notebook” — not the model at the moment taking part in on Broadway — which she was pressured to surrender on the behest of the Big House Family. She can be engaged on songs, novels, a pop musical about Pocahontas and a rock opera a few 1600s science fiction author.
“I’m in a season of sure,” Lenz says.
Does that embrace becoming a member of former “One Tree Hill” co-stars Bush and Burton in a rumored reboot?
“I all the time wish to return,” Lenz says. “It won’t ever depart my bones. I might be thrilled to take part creatively in some type of reimagining if it made sense. It’s not no.”
