X-Men Actor Tim Pocock Details Escape from Opus Dei, Conversion Therapy and Years of Hiding

Tim Pocock has had a career that has seen him on the sandy shores of Summer Bay to the heights of Hollywood.

But in his new book he has revealed the deep struggles he has faced with his sexuality throughout his life in an oppressive religious upbringing.

Including his time at a Sydney Catholic school and his exposure to conversion therapy as a young man.

Tim Pocock is sharing his story

“When you are raised to believe that the person you are is unacceptable, you hide. And you stay hidden” Tim Pocock says in an Instagram post about his new book The Truth Will Set You Free.

His new memoir seeks to tell the story behind his struggles being raised by a deeply conservative catholic family in the midst of attending a school linked to the catholic organisation Opus Dei.

He shares how he was encouraged to become a priest and also recalls his experience of conversion therapy where his sexuality was attempted to be hypnotised away.

Tim Pocock had previously spoken out about his experiences with Opus Dei on ABC’s Four Corners in 2023.

He told the program at the time how he was lead to believe that he was “going to spend all of eternity in the fiery depths of hell because of something that you can’t change about yourself” because he was gay.

However Tim managed to escape the confines of his upbringing and set his sights for the big screen landing major film and television roles, including his role as Scott Summers, better known as Cyclops in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

In an extract from the book released today he recalls his time on the red carpet as a then 23 year old, still full of fear and doubt.

“I look back at the photos and cringe-inducing interviews from the red carpet, and all I see is a lost little deer in the headlights” he writes.

“I was a fish out of water and, despite trying to fake it till I made it, I was an impostor.”

“The truth was that, behind the scenes, the Tim Pocock who attended that glitzy event was consumed by a deep self-loathing that had persisted for more than a decade. I had a dark, soul-crushing secret that consumed my every thought and filled me with such profound shame that I hid my true self from literally everyone.”

“I carried the guilt of someone who had committed a heinous crime, like murder, and lived under the constant torment of what my deserved punishment would be. Yet I was no murderer. What I was, in fact, was gay.”

 

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The extract explores his time at Redfield College in Sydney and what it was like growing up as a young boy in that environment detailing the militant religious instruction and the homophobic bullying he faced at the hands of his peers from as young as nine years old.

“Redfield’s school motto was Veritas Liberabit Vos: The truth will set you free. As the years went on, this motto rang more and more false to me” he wrote.

Pocock goes on to speak about his experiences coming out on the Four Corners episode and the outpouring of support that followed.

“Only 10 years earlier, I had been living in such fear of myself that I couldn’t even say the words “I’m gay” while coming out – yet now I was on national television sharing my biggest secret and calling for an end to bigoted homophobia.”

Tim Pocock has since gone on to advocate for the banning of conversion practices in NSW and a strong advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community.

The Truth Will Set You Free is set for release on June 25.