Billy Zane is Larry Ray in first look at Lifetime's Sarah Lawrence sex cult movie
Zane stars in the true-crime movie as Larry Ray, the ex-con who physically, mentally, and sexually abused a group of Sarah Lawrence students for a decade.
When the script calls for a charismatic bald man whose magnetism also pulses with disconcerting menace, there's only one guy for the job: Billy Zane.
The actor is playing the title role in Lifetime's upcoming true-crime film Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story, directed by Elisabeth Rohm and based on the notorious leader of the so called "Sarah Lawrence sex cult." EW has exclusive first-look photos of Zane as Ray, an ex-con who moved into his daughter's dorm at the New York-based college in 2010 and gradually gained enormous influence and power over her roommates.
Ryan Plummer/ Lifetime
Billy Zane as Larry Ray in 'Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story'Devil on Campus follows Ray as he "enthralls" the students "with conversations and promises to help them with personal transformations by preying on their insecurities and fears," according to Lifetime's synopsis. "Under Ray’s influence, the students uncover false memories of childhood trauma that Ray used to further alienate them from their families. As the students continued to fall under Ray’s control, he began to target their friends and family, extending his reach of emotional, financial, sexual abuse and mental manipulation... Ray's control moved from emotional and mental to sexual as well, creating a web of lies and deceit."
The scandal, which was also chronicled in Hulu's harrowing 2023 documentary Stolen Youth, became national news. Ray was ultimately arrested in 2020 and is now serving 60 years in prison after being convicted of racketeering conspiracy, extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, among other charges. See more photos of Zane as the de facto cult leader below.
Ryan Plummer/ Lifetime
Manuela Sosa as Felicia, Frankie Warren as Isabella, Billy Zane as Larry Ray, Erin Walsh as Talia, and Tedra Rogers as Claudia in 'Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story'
Ryan Plummer/ Lifetime
Tedra Rogers and Billy Zane in 'Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story'Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story airs June 23 on Lifetime.
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