Actor Allison Mack reveals role in Nxivm sex cult in new podcast: ‘I was abusive’ | US crime

Smallville actress Allison Mack says she was once captivated by the influence she wielded through her role in sex cult Nxivm — even though it ultimately landed her in federal prison, and she now realizes it was “abusive.”

“I was excited about the power I felt when these young, beautiful women looked at me and listened to me,” Mack, 43, says in a new podcast series called Allison After Nxivm, which contains her first public remarks since her release from prison about two years ago. “And – yes – the sexuality was exciting.”

Mack offered the remembrance after pleading guilty in 2021 to charges that she manipulated women to serve Nxivm leader Keith Raniere, who was ultimately convicted of sex trafficking crimes. She was released from a federal prison near San Francisco in 2023 while Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison.

The seven-episode Allison After Nxivm, produced by CBC’s Uncover, chronicles in part how Mack went from joining the cast of the popular Superman show Smallville in 2001 to recruiting women into Nxivm based on the fame her work gave her.

Mack on the podcast said she was introduced to Nxivm by her Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk and then invited to meet Raniere, the leader of the organization that bills itself as a self-improvement group in upstate New York.

Raniere ultimately convinced Mack that being “physically intimate with him” could help her deal with the consequences of the childhood sexual exploitation she had been subjected to, she said on the podcast. She explains how she was indoctrinated into getting other women to join Nxim, where they were brainwashed, branded with Raniere’s initials and forced to have sex with him.

“I capitalized on the things I had,” Mack said on the podcast, whose release Monday was covered by outlets including Vanity Fair, NBC and E! News. “The success I had as an actor…was a powerful tool I had to get people to do what I wanted.”

Although she made it a point to say she was among those brainwashed, Mack acknowledges she also victimized women, saying she was “emotionally aggressive” and “insensitive” toward them.

“I was not nice and… I was violent,” adds Mack – who left Germany for the United States at the age of two.

Mack said in one particular case that she was “the middleman [for Raniere] and this person.”

“It was my job to explain to him what to do with him for his growth,” Mack recalls. “The more she said, ‘I’m scared, I don’t want to do it,’ the more I said, ‘You have to do it, and the longer you wait, the more consequences there will be.’

“The coercion started, and the pressure, and the pressure, and the pressure… And then it was – like – rape. »

Federal officials charged Mack for her involvement in Nxivm in April 2018. She pleaded guilty and helped authorities gather evidence as they prosecuted Raniere, who was convicted in October 2020.

Mack received her sentence in June 2021 during a hearing in which she repudiated Raniere.

“I made choices that I will forever regret,” Mack told the court that day – while also expressing “remorse and guilt.”

On Allison After Nxivm, Mack said: “People think I’m this pervert. But that’s not what happened – what it was for me.

“People may believe me, or they may think I’m full of bullshit and not listen. But I feel like I need to at least say it out loud to myself, once.”