Aaron Ashmore played Allison Mack’s love interest on Smallville for three years — but did he know anything about her involvement in the sex cult NXIVM?
“She was lovely. She was very welcoming and inviting,” Ashmore, 45, who played Jimmy Olsen on the hit CW series, recalled of his former costar during the Tuesday, March 25, episode of the “Inside of You” podcast. “And even her boyfriend Chad [Krowchuk], they would invite me out to go for hikes and stuff. She was super cool and she is a very, very good actor.”
Ashmore praised Mack, 42, for being a “solid” scene partner, adding, “She brings a lot to the character. And that was great to get a chance to work with her because she made it really easy.”
Podcast host Michael Rosenbaum, who starred on Smallville as Lex Luthor, pivoted the conversation to Mack’s controversies — specifically her prison time in connection to NXIVM.
“In retrospect, I remember some of the girls on set — [including] some of the guest stars — came in and would all socially hang out. Maybe some of that stuff, but I didn’t really hear about it,” Ashmore explained of Mack’s connection to the sex cult. “I did go to a bunch of script readings that Allison and her friends had organized. Maybe that was some of that was part of [that] but [I didn’t know].”
Ashmore said his jaw “was on the floor” when Mack’s legal issues came to light. “I knew Alison really well for those three years,” he noted. “We worked together and nothing in her personality would have led me to believe that any of this was possible. It seemed like an alternate reality.”
In 2018, Mack was arrested for allegedly recruiting women to the sex trafficking group with the purpose of becoming sex slaves to its leader, Keith Raniere, in addition to identity fraud and money laundering. “The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants’ benefit,” United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said in a statement at the time.
Allison Mack, Aaron Ashmore in ‘Smallville.’ Warner Brothers Television / courtesy Everett Collection
Court documents obtained by Us Weekly revealed that Mack — who is best known for playing Chloe on Smallville from 2001 to 2011 — recruited women to NXIVM by describing it as “a women’s empowerment group or sorority.” After joining, members were forced to “provide [NXIVM] with naked photographs, assets, criminal confessions and other damaging information, known as collateral.”
The docs also stated that Mack “would perform ceremonies in which her slaves were branded” with Raniere’s initials. Mack was released on a $5 million bail bond at the time and sentenced to house arrest. She changed her not guilty plea in 2019 to guilty of conspiracy and racketeering after NXIVM cofounder, Nancy Salzman, and her daughter, Lauren Salzman, both pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges one month prior.
Raniere, meanwhile, was sentenced to 120 years behind bars in October 2020 after being convicted of seven felony charges related to sex trafficking of children, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit forced labor. He told NBC News at the time that he was “innocent” of his crimes.
Mack apologized to NXIVM victims in a 2021 statement to Us, admitting that she “committed grievous wrongs,” adding, “I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, wholeheartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life.”
Mack was sentenced to three years of jail time in June 2021. She began her prison sentence in September 2021 before securing an early release in July 2023.
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