Hollywood actor Andrew Keegan has laughed off accusations that he was the leader of a cult formed in Los Angeles 10 years ago and has admitted that he actually finds the “single title” quite funny.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the 45-year-old actor, perhaps best known for playing Joey Donner in the 1999 teen romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, starring Health Ledger, addressed claims that Full Circle , which operated out of a former Hare Krishna temple in Venice Beach from 2014 to 2017, was a cult.
When asked about the rumours, father-of-one Andrew said: “I’m happy to take it in my stride and say, ‘OK, I know who I am, I know my life, it’s not as it’s written.'” but you know what it is. , what are you going to do?”‘
“I mean, just live a good life as much as you can and the most recent viral thing, I actually said what I had to say, I kind of dismissed it because it’s not true,” he added, referring to the comments he made. about him The capsule meets the world podcast in February.
Andrew continued: ‘I kind of understand it and I also accept my share 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 dampen 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 formed in Venice Beach in 2014 and meetings were held in a former Hare Krishna temple.
‘We did our part to raise awareness about this, even if it’s at the cost of being called funny names. But it’s also funny, because I’ve never met anyone else who 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 stated, “There’s a bit of pioneering in this because I can’t tell you how many times people have felt more comfortable in their spiritual endeavors or quests, so to speak, knowing, ‘Okay, well, this is something I should do.'” . examine.”
“A lot of people came in having read that nonsense and discovered something, and they’re very grateful for it, and I will say this, during that particular time period that it was currently happening, it actually provided an avenue for other places to do things like Meditation and sound healing.
‘So since then, those things that we were doing that were under this “cult activity” are now more normalized.
“It’s a good thing, you should meditate, you should take some time and think about doing things that are healthy for you, not just working and going to the bar.” Do something outside of that…social things.’
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. .
When talking about the beginnings of Full Circle, Andrew explained that he was living in Venice Beach at the time and “immersed himself in the culture and the community.”
‘There was an interesting group of hippie types, so to speak, in Venice. “I’m sure if you go to the west side, there’s definitely a lot of spirituality,” he said.
Andrew said people would visit Full Circle and feel “more comfortable in their spiritual endeavors or searches.”
The actor explained how Full Circle “provided a path 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 people and we had this opportunity. This old Hare Krishna temple was empty and we thought, “Why don’t we get some people together and open this place?”
‘Looking back, it was crazy. She was putting up tens of thousands of dollars, but we opened it, spent three years, and really built an amazing group of friends.’
“We went through something really significant between 2014 and 2017,” Andrew added, before talking about the much-publicized Vice article.
The profile, which was published in August 2014, referred to Full Circle as a “temple and spiritual movement,” after visiting the temple, but Andrew and his members insisted it was not a cult.
‘I probably should have had a bit more media training at the time. “They really created a very interesting and colorful story…we really got together and did something on Sunday,” she said.
‘We did almost 1,000 events in three years and it was really difficult. It was really beneficial for a lot of people, I still hear about it now, and people say, “It was a great time.”
Andrew still lives in Venice Beach and has been working in real estate, but also continues to work as an actor.
‘I made two pilots. That’s the great thing about this industry, there are always opportunities and if one of these shows comes out, I’d rather be on a set than doing real estate, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one or both of them get picked up,” he said.