As a celebrated actor, Glenn Close exudes an innate sophistication, but the 67-year-old recently revealed that her childhood was actually spent growing up in an oppressive cult. Close made the shocking revelation in a recent issue of The Hollywood Reporter, where she appears on the cover.

Close revealed that she entered the cult when she was aged seven and could only escape from its oppressive environment when she turned 22. Her father, Dr. William Taliaferro Close, entered into a conservative religious group called Moral Re-Armament with his family and even moved them to live in the group’s headquarters in Switzerland.

Glenn Close opens up about being raised in a cult http://t.co/jFk0YExGuK

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) October 16, 2014

“You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire. 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 seven till the time you’re 22, it has a profound impact on you,” said Close.

It was only when Close started attending the College of William and Mary that she was able to sever her ties with the religious group in 1970. Even after leaving the group, however, Close was still haunted in her dreams by its influence. Since Close didn’t seek professional help, she processed her childhood trauma through these dreams.

“I had these dreams, and they started with betrayal, a sense of betrayal, and then they developed into me being able to look at these people and say, ‘You’re wrong. You’re wrong.’ And then the final incarnation of those dreams was my being able to calmly get up and walk away. And then I didn’t have them anymore,” Close said.

.@THR‘s #Broadway Cover: Glenn Close returns to stage, reveals remarkable childhood in cult http://t.co/lp20p4REsz pic.twitter.com/0wrDX0aRGo

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 15, 2014

Close never resumed contact with the group and has since forgiven her father for her traumatic childhood. “I always thought, the way life works, the burden of forgiveness is on the child,” Close said.