Riverdale Star Marisol Nichols Works Undercover To Catch Sexual Predators

Marisol Nichols is giving back!

You’ll probably recognize the 46-year-old from her role on Riverdale as Hermione Lodge, but she wants to be known for her work in a different space: catching sex traffickers.

In a new interview with Marie Claire, the actress explained how she has worked with investigators to arrest hundreds of sex traffickers over the past five years, doing everything from going undercover as a victim to spreading awareness through her organization Foundation For A Slavery Free World.

She strives to catch these “disgusting” predators because of her own history with sexual abuse and drugs. Marisol opened up about being raped at the age of 11 by a few boys she had gone to a party with, calling it her “worst nightmare.” She shared:

“It changed the entire trajectory of my life in a day.”

Nichols opened up more about her reasoning for doing this work, which has led to the arrest of a number of criminals:

“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. They’re the ones who, when faced with inhumanity, will try to stop it. Because you have to try, right? Even if it doesn’t work.”

Around this time she discovered the man who she believed was her biological father had actually adopted her. The rape coupled with this realization pushed her down a dark path, leading her to drugs:

“I did a lot of them.”

She continued:

“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.”

It was when she began acting that her life really turned around, in addition to discovering the Church of Scientology in 1996:

“Honestly, Scientology is what saved my freaking ass. I’d probably be dead.”

As you’re likely aware, there are a number of controversies surrounding the celebrity-favorite practice, but Nichols says many of the allegations made against the church “have been completely fabricated.”

She continued:

“I get attacked for that all the time. Whenever I post about my sex-trafficking work, [strangers on social media] go apes**t on me. You don’t have any idea what you are talking about. We’re not the church known for this sort of thing. Where’s the police charges? Where’s the evidence?”

In addition to saving her “freaking ass,” she believes Scientology has given her strength through difficult times. Nine years ago, her brother died by suicide. Last year, her Riverdale co-star Luke Perry suddenly passed away of a stroke: