Riverdale’s Marisol Nichols hunts down child sex predators when not acting, says Scientology saved her

Marisol Nichols, who is known for essaying Hermoine Lodge on the CW drama series ‘Riverdale’ lives her life quite differently when she’s not on camera. The 46-year-old actress has involved herself in sex-trafficking sting operations in real life, which has focussed on hunting down “disgusting” child predators for the past five years. 

In her latest interview with Marie Claire, Nichols talking about being determined to put an end to sex trafficking says, “If good people don’t know about it, it will keep happening, because good people are the only ones who will do anything about it.” 

The operations demand her to play different roles. Sometimes a pimp and the other times require her to pretend like a 13-year-old while speaking to one such predator over the phone. Reflecting on her earlier shows, mostly legal dramas such as 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit', and 'Cold Case', she said, “ It gave me mad respect for these guys. It sparked my interest in the trafficking world, realizing and really being on the other side of the underbelly of society.”

Besides her stint in shows based on crime, what inspired Nichols further was her own experience of being raped at the age of 11. When “It ended up being my worst nightmare.”, she turned to a range of substances to cope with it. “I would go to the city and scrape the [cocaine] block and weigh and measure and mix it. I think I paid for coke like twice,” she recollected. 

When nothing eased her pain, including hours of reading about “Buddha this, Zen that”, Nichols stumbled upon the Church of Scientology” in 1996, which turned her life around. “Honestly, Scientology is what saved my freaking ass. I’d probably be dead,” she thanks the institution. 

Although there’s umpteenth controversy surrounding Scientology, Nichols believes they “have been completely fabricated.”

Even her contribution towards capturing sex predators isn’t spared of the wrath of the critics who strongly condemn Scientology and its followers. “I get attacked for that all the time. Whenever I post about my sex-trafficking work, [strangers on social media] go apeshit on me,” she explained. 

Nichols feels Scientology has given her the strength to deal with the loss of her loved ones and also guided her through the darkest of times.