Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!)

Joy’s agent called to tell her that the show Ravens, which had been retitled One Tree Hill, was specifically asking for her to audition. Joy agreed to it. The first audition went well and she was called in for a screen test and chemistry read to see how well she clicked with the show’s lead, actor Chad Michael Murray. Joy was inspired by the depth of the characters and the show’s uplifting message. Before the screen test, one of the executives warned her manager that “this show is about fucking and sucking, and if she’s gonna have a problem with that, she shouldn’t come in” (121). At the screen test, Joy performed well with Chad. Afterward, Chad told her she got the role as the awkward next-door neighbor Haley James.

The Family was supportive. They went to a chain restaurant to celebrate. Everyone prayed for her. The next week, Joy moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to shoot the show.

Joy arrived on set and began to meet her costars. She was especially friendly with the hair and makeup women, whom she called “the Mama Bears” (134). Early on in production, Joy attempted to befriend the charismatic Sophia Bush, but they drifted apart because of Joy’s militant religious beliefs. Joy attempted to bond with other Christians who worked on the show, but they found some of her beliefs off-putting. Joy rented a beach house. Emily, a talent manager in LA and part of the Family, came to visit her. Emily told Joy she was quitting her job and moving to Idaho to work at a motel that Les and the Family were opening as part of their ministry.

That summer, the Family created an official leadership board called the Hamoatzah consisting of Les, Martine, Pam, Ed, Kurt, and Lucy. Kurt and Les flew to Wilmington to meet with Joy. They asked her to invest $10,000 in the motel project and she agreed to think about it. Les gave Joy a pamphlet about the project. That night, Joy read through the pamphlet. It had a (poorly-written) story in it about how Les had healed a man of congenital heart disease. Joy felt shocked that Les was so humble—he had never mentioned this story to her. Struck by the story, Joy called her financial managers and asked them to send $10,000 to Les for the project despite their objections.

Joy stayed connected to the Family through emails sent by Les and others. One of those emails informed her that Mina was pregnant again and suffering from “post-pardum [sic]” [post-partum depression]. When she wasn’t at work on the show, Joy filled her time with creative activities like writing songs. However, she began to get a reputation on the set for being difficult because her ADHD and OCD would lead her to fixate on things like an apple pie in the background of a shot. Other times, she would refuse to do certain things like be shot wearing only a bra because it offended her “religious modesty.” Joy notes that the methods the show’s creator used to control her, such as geographic isolation, were similar to those used by Les.

Joy began to bond with other actors on the show like Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty even though Pam and Les encouraged her not to because they weren’t “spiritually safe.” When she moved into a house in downtown Wilmington, Les chided her for not asking the Family for permission first. He told her he wanted her to come back for Christmas so they could have a meeting and she could share her problems with them.

When the motel was finished, Les began holding church services twice a month in its conference center. However, the timing of the services was always decided at the last minute. Joy notes that this was another way to control the group members so that they would have to drop everything and go to the services at a moment’s notice. Emily was struggling as the manager of the motel because Les and Kurt micromanaged everything, including how to fold the towels.

When Joy arrived in Idaho for Christmas, she noticed that the house was in disrepair. The Quiet Boy (QB) had punched a hole in his bedroom door after an argument with his younger brothers. Les thought it was funny, but it made Joy uneasy. Dontay’s mother, Esther, arrived to spend Christmas with them. She was friendly with the Family and a major investor in the motel. However, after visiting the motel and seeing its state of disrepair, she grew frustrated and left.

On Christmas morning, Joy overheard a conversation between Kurt and Les. They were talking about how Mina was “not very credible” because of her postpartum depression and how Harker was becoming critical (163). Later that day, Les told Joy that her parents had been asking pointed questions about the Family and researching Les’s background. She apologized and wondered why her parents couldn’t just “let [her] be happy” (168).

That evening, Joy went into the basement for her meeting with Pam, Emily, and Les. They pressured her to talk about herself and criticized her for hours. They told her she was asking too many “illegal questions” like whether she still wanted to be in the Family. Joy felt she couldn’t do anything right.

One Tree Hill gained in popularity. Because they were so isolated in Wilmington, the cast was shocked when they went to New York and found themselves mobbed by fans. Joy was somewhat unnerved by the attention and the competition amongst the actresses, but she didn’t want to confide in anyone because she had been taught not to “take advice from nonbelievers” (177). She didn’t even call Mina because Joy had been avoiding her after the conversation she had overheard between Les and Kurt.

Joy met a Christian carpenter from Wilmington named Ben. They began to date and he proposed soon after. She said yes even though she wasn’t sure about it. Ben went to Idaho and met everyone in the Family. Afterward, Les and Pam voiced their reservations about him. Joy told Ben they had to call off the engagement because the Family didn’t approve.

Les formed a company called TRIAD to manage the motel and other businesses. Gretchen was made bookkeeper.

In 2005, Joy had the opportunity to be part of a nation-wide One Tree Hill concert tour where she could perform her own music. During the tour, Joy hit it off with actor and musician Tyler Hilton, but he began to distance himself from her when he learned she was in a “religious cult.” During the tour, Joy got a call from her manager that she had an opportunity to audition for the role of Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. Joy was thrilled because it was a dream role. However, Les discouraged her from doing it because it would take her further away from the Family, so she turned down the role. Joy speculates Les didn’t want her to do the role because he thought she might never come back from New York.

Emily called Joy to tell her that Les and Kurt had pressured her into allowing a group of swingers to book the motel. Emily felt it went against their Christian values, but Les justified it by saying swingers were the kind of people to whom they most needed to minister. Joy highlights the hypocrisy of this stance when contrasted with Les’s treatment of Dontay who had been fired from his job at the motel for watching porn.

To earn more money, Les and Pam became counselors despite not being certified. They laundered the payments and insurance through Pam’s husband Ed’s medical practice. Mina began counseling sessions with Les for postpartum depression in which Les was openly critical of Harker. Harker called a meeting of the Hamoatzah and accused Les of trying to drive a wedge between himself and his wife. Les apologized, but it was an insincere apology. Joy notes this was the crack that eventually led to the fracture of the Big House Family.

Les’s friend, a prophet Joy dubs Pirelli, came to the motel to hold a series of spiritual workshops. One of the attendees was a One Tree Hill superfan named Danielle who was there to try and get closer to Joy.

The tension between Les and Harker continued to mount. Dontay and Jasmine got married, followed by Abe Van Hewitt and Emily. Joy told Les she wanted to get married, too, and mentioned QB. He encouraged the pairing and eventually they started dating. Soon after, QB proposed and, despite her misgivings, Joy accepted. In the time leading up to the wedding, Joy felt “hopeless.” She asked God for guidance and believed she heard the message “If you choose this, I will make it good” (203). Joy’s parents were unenthusiastic about the marriage. Mina and Harker attempted to dissuade her from going through with it. Pam and Les reassured Joy that she was making the right choice. They told her she would eventually feel attracted to QB.

Joy prepared for the wedding by adding QB to all her bank accounts and agreeing to hire TRIAD as her financial manager. She bought a house in Idaho near the Big House. She dreaded her wedding day.

Joy and QB married on New Year’s Eve. Joy’s father refused to attend, but her mother, stepfather, and even Camille came. Pam acted like the matron of honor instead of Joy’s actual mother. Standing on the alter, Joy felt like she was in one of the scenes she had acted out, except it “wasn’t make-believe,” it was her actual life (208).

QB arranged a honeymoon to Colorado paid for with Joy’s money. Joy was disappointed because she had hoped to go to the beach or Europe. He insisted they stay in the hotel room most of the time. They had sex, but it was unsatisfying for both of them.

Afterwards, QB moved in with Joy in Wilmington. He was cordial with the cast and crew of One Tree Hill, but privately complained they were “frauds.” He was extremely controlling. Joy told Mina and Harker about her concerns. When QB found out, he was furious. He told Joy she had to “obey” him. Eventually, QB moved back to Idaho. Even while he was there, he continued to closely monitor her. He grew upset when she would spend time with male coworkers. He even dictated what she could wear.

Joy decided to throw her energy into developing a musical version of the Nicholas Sparks novel The Notebook. She got support to workshop it in Wilmington, but QB refused to let her play the lead role of Allie because it would involve romantic moments with a man. Members of the Family got involved in the production, leading to cost overruns and delays. The six performances of the musical went well, but because of legal wrangling, they could not secure the legal permissions for the material and the musical never went into production.

One day, Les announced his plans to buy The Bistro, the only nice restaurant in their Idaho town. Soon after, Kurt announced the motel was closing due to their inability to pay the mortgage. Danielle, the One Tree Hill fan, had moved to Idaho to be closer to the Family. She told the group that there were rumors about the “cult” on fan message boards.

As the rumors grew, Joy became increasingly isolated in the industry. She had recorded an album, but Epic Records refused to release it because of her cult ties. Meanwhile, she sunk more money into the Bistro, which seemed to always need something. After three years of this, she planned to leave One Tree Hill. However, Les encouraged her to sign another contract because he didn’t “think the Lord [was] done with [her] at One Tree Hill,” (233) and so in 2009 she returned to the Wilmington set for season 7.