Callum Blue was grappling with loss when he decided to attend his first NXIVM meeting.
“At the height of my popularity, I went through some trauma,” the Smallville actor explains in this clip from E! True Hollywood Story‘s upcoming Oct. 6 premiere. “My father took his own life. And I continued working and I was caught up in this spiral of chaos. ‘Cause Hollywood can be a chaotic and noisy place.”
Trying to come to terms with his father’s passing amid the Hollywood havoc, Callum tells the camera he started “looking to the outside world to find the answers.” In part, the search led him to several NXIVM workshops, billed then as “Executive Success Programs” (ESPs) meant to help its pupils realize the scope of their personal potential in varying capacities.
In the new clip, Dynasty‘s Catherine Oxenberg—who details daughter India Oxenberg‘s eventual escape from Keith Raniere‘s bogus “self-help” group in her 2018 memoir, Captive: A Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter From the Terrifying Cult NXIVM, as well as Lifetime’s recent screen adaptation—says she remembers seeing Callum, a “friend,” at her and India’s first ESP seminar. He was a familiar face amid an otherwise very unfamiliar situation.
“We enter the room…it’s in a private residence. And I saw all these coaches lined up wearing these various different colored sashes,” notes Catherine, adding, “It just seemed a little bit weird.”
Following reports that Raniere allegedly ran a female slavery ring under the guise of this purported self-help group, the NXIVM co-founder was found guilty of sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, racketeering and racketeering conspiracy earlier this year.
Allison Mack, Callum’s former Smallville co-star, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges for her alleged role in the organization and currently awaits sentencing.
Hear more from Callum and Catherine in the full clip above.
E! True Hollywood Story returns Sunday, Oct. 6 at 10 p.m.!