Hollywood actor Andrew Keegan has laughed off accusations that he was the leader of a Los Angeles cult formed 10 years ago and has admitted that he actually finds the ‘unique title’ rather amusing.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the 45-year-old actor – perhaps best known for playing Joey Donner in 1999 teen rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You, starring Health Ledger – addressed the claims that Full Circle, which operated out of an old Hare Krishna temple in Venice Beach from 2014 to 2017, was a cult.
When asked about the rumors, father-of-one Andrew said: ‘I’m kind of just happy to just take it in my stride like, “Okay I know who I am, I know my life, it’s not as it’s been written about, but you know it is what it is, what are you going to do?”‘
‘I mean, you just live a good life as much as you can and the most recent viral thing, I actually said what I needed to say, I sort of dismissed it because it’s not true,’ he added, referring to comments he made on the Pod Meets World podcast back in February.
Andrew continued: ‘I kind of understand, and I also accept my part of responsibility for putting myself in that situation, but I don’t apologize for it. But it is what it is and it’s not going to cloud up my day.
Hollywood actor Andrew Keegan has laughed off accusations that he was the leader of a Los Angeles cult formed 10 years ago
Full Circle was formed in Venice Beach in 2014, with meetings taking place in an old Hare Krishna temple
‘We did our part to just bring awareness to it, even if it’s at the expense of being called funny names. But, it’s funny too, because I’ve never met anybody else that either is or has been accused of being a cult leader, so I have a unique title in that sense!’ he laughed, before adding: ‘You can’t take life too seriously.’
He then claimed: ‘There’s a bit of pioneering in it because I can’t tell you how many times people have felt more comfortable in their spiritual endeavors or quest, if you will, by knowing like, “Okay, well it’s something I should look into.”
‘Many people came with having read the nonsense and discovered something, and are so grateful for it, and I will say this, during that particular period of time when it was currently happening, it actually provided a pathway for other places to do things like meditation and sound healing.
‘So, since then those actual things that we were doing that were under this “cult activity” are more normalized now.
‘It’s good stuff, you should meditate, you should take some time and think about doing things that are healthy for yourself, not just working and going to the bar. Do something outside of that… societal stuff.’
Andrew, who also played the role of Ronnie ‘Lips’ Waterman in a 1996 episode of Boy Meets World, joined former stars of the show Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle, on their podcast earlier this year and addressed the ‘cult’ claims.
Opening up about the beginnings of Full Circle, Andrew explained that he was living in Venice Beach at the time and became ‘immersed in the culture and the community.’
‘There was this interesting group of hippie types, if you will, in Venice. I’m sure if you went on the west side, there’s definitely a lot of spirituality,’ he said.
Andrew said people would visit Full Circle and went on to feel ‘more comfortable in their spiritual endeavors or quest’
The actor explained how Full Circle ‘provided a pathway for other places to do things like meditation and sound healing’
Andrew is perhaps best known for starring alongside Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger in the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You
‘I was connected with some folks and we had this opportunity. This old Hare Krishna Temple, it was sitting there empty and we were like, “Why don’t we get some people together and let’s open this place up?”
‘Looking back, it was insane. I was putting down tens of thousands of dollars, but we opened it up and spent three years and really did build an amazing friend group.’
‘We went through something really significant from 2014 to 2017,’ Andrew added, before discussing the much-publicized Vice article.
The profile, which was published in August 2014, referred to Full Circle as a ‘temple and spiritual movement,’ after paying the temple a visit, but Andrew and his members insisted that it wasn’t a cult.
‘I probably should have had a little bit more media training at the time. They just really created a very interesting, colorful story… we really just got together and did a Sunday thing,’ he said.
‘We did almost 1,000 events in three years and it was actually really hard. It was really beneficial to a lot of people, I still hear about it now, where people are like, “That was such a great time.”‘
Andrew still lives in Venice Beach and has been working in real estate, but is also still taking on acting jobs.
‘I did two pilots. That’s what’s great about this industry, there’s always opportunities and if one of these shows goes, I would much rather be on a set than doing real estate, so I’m crossing my fingers that one or both of them gets picked up,’ he said.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Mail Online
