Tim Pocock, best known for playing a young Cyclops in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his breakout role in Dance Academy, is finally telling his story—raw, real, and ready to be heard.
In his new memoir, The Truth Will Set You Free, the Australian actor dives deep into the trauma and triumph of growing up gay in a devout Catholic household tied to the ultra-conservative Opus Dei movement.
Pocock describes a youth shadowed by guilt and fear, shaped by strict teachings that labeled homosexuality as a sin worthy of eternal damnation.
Teachers at his Sydney Catholic school drove the message home hard, warning students of hell for stepping outside the moral lines.
At home, things weren’t much better.
His family offered no support for his queer identity, and his childhood bedtime stories included saintly biographies that doubled as fire-and-brimstone warnings.
While other boys bonded over rugby and cricket, Pocock found joy in opera and theater, performing at the Sydney Opera House in his free time.
This passion, though beautiful, made him a magnet for bullying from classmates who didn’t need proof to make their assumptions about him.
“Even though they had no clue that I actually was gay, they decided,” Pocock said in a recent podcast. “I liked looking at boys. That’s all that I knew.”
He remembers thinking puberty might “cure” him, but of course, it didn’t.
He describes his mother as someone who always “sort of course-corrected” him, urging him to adjust his voice and mannerisms without ever naming what she suspected.
That changed dramatically when she discovered gay magazines in his room.
“She had torn every page out and laid them all over the dining table like a tablecloth,” Pocock recalled. “She kept saying, ‘Is this who you are? Is this what you have become?’”
His response, though internal, was clear: “This is who I’ve always been.”
After finishing Wolverine at age 23, Pocock was hit with a double shock—his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and he discovered that his father was secretly having an affair with his godmother, who was also his mother’s cousin.
“I carried so much guilt about who I was,” he said. “And then to see the hypocrisy of these supposedly moral people—it was infuriating.”
Out of compassion, he chose not to tell his mother about the affair, knowing her time was limited.
At 26, with her condition worsening, she suggested he see a therapist.
Pocock welcomed the idea, hoping it would help him process his sexuality and his family trauma.
But when he arrived for the appointment, the plaque on the door read “Catholic Psychologist.”
He realized too late that he’d been set up.
The therapist, who used hypnosis, claimed he could treat “addictions”—including homosexuality.
Despite his horror, Pocock continued the sessions for the sake of his mother, who died in 2012 still believing her son was “broken.”
“Her beliefs were very extreme,” Pocock said, “but in her mind, she was trying to save my soul. It came from a place of love, even if it hurt me deeply.”
Today, Pocock lives openly with his partner and is a fierce advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
He’s found purpose in helping others navigate the same path he once walked alone.
But the past still lingers.
“There are still those twangs of doubt,” he admits. “Like, am I now a spokesperson for Satan because I wrote a book encouraging people to be themselves?”
“But eventually, you learn to quiet those demons,” he adds. “You just put them in the corner and tell them to be quiet.”