Andrew Keegan Hits Back at Speculation He Was a 'Cult' Leader: 'That's Not at All What It Was'

Andrew Keegan has once again shot down speculation that his former spiritual community, Full Circle, was a "cult."

Sitting down with Josh McBride for the McBride Rewind podcast, the 10 Things I Hate About You actor talked about forming the California-based group in the mid-2010s. In 2014, Keegan made headlines after Vice published an article claiming that he had started his own religion.

"I led a spiritual community in the heart of Venice, and it was called Full Circle," Keegan shared on the podcast. Keegan claimed, "The press can, you know, say anything and create any headline, it's clickbait."

"There's just a lot of bulls--- out there," the 47-year-old continued. "You do a good thing, you bring people together, and sure it's a church, sure I'm an actor, and sure there are some horrific stories around people handling control and power and spirituality in the wrong way, but that is not at all what it was."

After its formation, the group started meeting at an old temple.

On the McBride Rewind podcast, Keegan said, "It's unfair with the definition of what a cult is, but cult is also the core word for culture, and Venice is a culturally diverse and culturally rich area, but spirituality can mean many things to people, and it's important. We had a saying at the temple, 'It's not serious, it's important.' "

"People should look deep into themselves as they're growing in life to heal because we've all had traumas, and it was just very simple in a lot of ways, just getting people together," he added.

Keegan said the emphasis of the community was connection, and reflected on modern times, saying, "the more we're disconnected with devices and technology, the more we're missing what we really are, which is like we're a village, we're a community."

He noted that Full Circle was "based on a book that was about building community." Keegan previously revealed that the group operated out of The Co-Creator's Handbook, a self-help book that encourages readers to find greater purpose in the world.

"In a lot of ways, it was just a very cool, you know, community center," he added.

He also credited the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, which began in September 2011, as inspiration. The international protest, centered in NYC's Zuccotti Park for 59 days, highlighted corporate greed, widespread economic inequality and the influence of money in politics.

Keegan shared that since he was never a series regular on any show, he didn't feel like he had a community to lean on in his late teens and early 20s.

"I was always a little bit of an outsider," he shared, noting that "Venice was really inspiring for me too at that time."

"There was a lot going on," he added. "This was just after the Occupy [Wall Street] movement. So, we were kind of this group of people, like, 'Oh, there's a place. Let's keep doing this.' "

While running the organization, Keegan said he was "offering" more than he was "receiving" to give people "a safe space."

"It was a lot of work. I put a lot of money into it, just to support the idea, and it was three years. A lot of people, even to this day, I get messages about how it was such a great experience in their life, and there are a lot of things from sound healing to yoga to meditation, you know, we did 1,000 events in three years."

The community was operational from 2014 to 2017, and Keegan emphasized, "We really offered a lot, and the benefits for those who participated were great."

"It's like an opportunity to kind of look at life in a different way. What's really important? Is it important to keep your corporate job and work until you get sick, then go on medication?" he said. "Life is more than that. And that's kind of the whole point of it is, 'Hey, let's just get together.' " 

While little is known about the interworkings of the now-defunct group, the Full Circle spiritual center was raided by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control in 2015 over fermented tea Kombucha, which state officials said was being sold without a proper permit at a fundraising event, per ABC7.

The 7th Heaven star also previously opened up about the group during a 2024 podcast appearance, admitting that, “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," he said on Pod Meets World.

Contrary to reporting that Keegan got the "ultimate say on all things" in the group's "inner circle" of "enlightened" members, he said that Full Circle was "the opposite of what you would imagine” and the group had "no doctrine" but was about "just getting people together."