Glenn Close talks about growing up in the Moral Re-Armament, a religious cult

Fatal Attraction‘s Glenn Close knows more about control and bad relationships than most because of her adolescent involvement with Moral Re-Armament, a right-wing religious cult.

Opening up about the experience in the new edition of The Hollywood Reporter, the actress said dad William Taliaferro Close, a Harvard-educated doctor, joined the group when she was 7 years old. Almost immediately, everything she knew and loved was taken from her as she and her siblings were sent to live at the MRA’s headquarters in Switzerland while her dad worked in Congo.

Although the MRA’s “Four Absolutes” were the honorable traits of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love, they were corrupted by the group’s leader, Rev. Frank Buchman, who is described by The Hollywood Reporter as “a violently anti-intellectual and possibly homophobic evangelical fundamentalist.”

Glenn, now 67, said of the tenets she was forced to live by, “You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire.”

The actress returned to her home state of Connecticut at the age of 15 to attend boarding school, but remained involved in the MRA for the following years. She even toured with Up With People, a choir initially affiliated with the organization.

Young Glenn Close in high school. She was still involved with the MRA.

Five years after graduating from high school, Glenn was inspired by “many things” and finally left the MRA for good.

“I had no toolbox to leave, but I did it,” she said of breaking free. “I had nothing to do with them from that point. And I wouldn’t have anything to do with them.”

Still, Glenn said she was haunted by the experiences for years.

“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 ,” she said. “I would have dreams because I didn’t go to any psychiatrist or anything.”

Her dad eventually also left the organization, which rebranded itself as Initiatives of Change in 2001. Before his death, Glenn said she forgave her dad for leading the family into the cult.

“Forgiveness is probably the most revolutionary concept there is right now in our world,” she said. “Because without forgiveness, you just perpetuate what has been before. You [have to] say, ‘It’s going to stop with me.'”