'GoT' actor Hannah Murray reveals cult involvement led to hospitalization
What's the story
Hannah Murray, known for her role as Gilly in Game of Thrones, has opened up about a dark period in her life. In an excerpt from her memoir The Make Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness shared with The Cut, she revealed how her brief involvement with an alleged wellness cult run by a man named Steve led to her involuntary hospitalization.
Cult involvement
Murray was 'involuntarily committed' to a psychiatric hospital
Murray, who also starred in Skins, wrote about being introduced to Steve and his organization. "After my time with them, I had never felt so powerful or alive," she said. However, just hours before her initiation ceremony into this alleged cult, she was suddenly hospitalized. "Even after I was told I was being involuntarily committed, I was not concerned," Murray recalled.
Alleged exorcism
The leader claimed to have 'performed an exorcism' on her
Murray revealed that the leader of the organization claimed to have "performed an exorcism" on her while she was filming Kathryn Bigelow's 2017 movie Detroit. Despite her deteriorating mental health, she was only concerned with the energy she felt spiraling through her body at that time. "I was concerned only with the energy I could feel spiraling up through my body," wrote Murray.
Communication
Murray sent Steve multiple texts while she was hospitalized
While hospitalized, Murray sent multiple texts to Steve, ranging from combative messages trying to figure out what had happened to her and accusing him of being an "evil cult leader" to expressions of gratitude. In response, he denied all wrongdoing. "If I run an evil cult I am the worst cult leader in history," Murray alleged Steve wrote in one text.
Mental health
She received a bipolar disorder diagnosis later
Murray later received a bipolar disorder diagnosis, but admitted she wasn't out of the woods following her hospital stay. "I did not enter ill and leave well," she wrote. "I entered extremely psychotic and left somewhat less so." Despite this, she returned to the life that had put her in the hospital in the first place, still seeking initiation into Steve's organization.
Prevention
Murray hopes sharing her experience will help others
Years later, Murray hopes sharing her experience can help prevent others from falling prey to the same situation. "It's easy to go, 'Well, that would never happen to me,' but we do ourselves a disservice when we start saying that because you don't know," she told The Guardian last month. "I had no idea I was going to go through any of the things in the book."