Sophia Bush said she had to fight against her character being sexualized on 'One Tree Hill'

Sophia Bush spent nine years playing Brook Davis on the fan favourite CW series One Tree Hill and in a new interview with Ashley Graham, the actor reveals she fought against her character being sexualized.Bush appeared on Graham’s podcast Pretty Big Deal this week and spoke about her time on One Tree Hill, including her concerns about playing a teen that was often shown in her underwear. "I brought a lot [of myself] to her," Bush tells Graham of her character. "I fought a lot with the writers...I was sort of unaware of the power dynamics at play and I would just say things. I'd be like, 'I'm not doing this."Bush says that she fought back against many scenes at the time and now realizes even more how harmful some of the storylines were for young viewers. "There was this sort of really weird thing...you look back at it, at the time I didn't realize how inappropriate it was, but again, this is a long time ago. I remember my boss kept writing scenes for me to be in my underwear," said Bush. "And I was like, 'I'm not doing this, this is inappropriate. Like, I don't think this is what we should be teaching 16-year-old girls to be doing, and to be seeking validation this way."[video_embed id='5460210421001']RELATED: Ashley Graham shares scary sexual assault experience[/video_embed]In response to her refusal, Bush says her boss replied, "Well you're not 16." The actor, who was in her 20s at the time, said “'But I'm playing 16, and if you want somebody to do it so badly, get somebody else to do it,'. And he literally said to me, 'Well you're the one with the big f--king rack everybody wants to see.' And I was like, 'What?! Well, I'm not doing it!'"Bush said she showed up to set the next day in a turtleneck. "I was like, 'This is just how I'm gonna dress on the show from now on if you don't stop writing these scenes,'" she tells Graham. "I was really ballsy and I didn't even know it. I just wasn't wanting to perpetuate this sort of behavior that I didn't think was appropriate."

 

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Ever since finding fame on One Tree Hill in 2003, @SophiaBush has used her platform to stick up for others and champion equality. On this week’s episode of @prettybigdealpod, she shows us that if you want to make a difference for others, go out there and get educated! “You’re hard to ignore when you can back up your facts!” Thank you so much Sophia for coming on today and inspiring others to make change ? Audio ? is live wherever you listen to podcasts and the full YouTube video ? drops tomorrow at 3pm ❤️

A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jan 21, 2020 at 10:27am PST

Although Bush doesn’t give any specifics beyond the term ‘boss,’ the assumption is that she’s speaking about One Tree Hill show creator Mark Schwahn. Bush’s friend and OTH co-star Hilarie Burton came for him in 2017 and accused Schwahn of sexual harassment and assault on set. Writer Michelle Furtney-Goodman and an anonymous female actor also accused Schwahn of sexually inappropriate behaviour on the job. Burton and 17 women from OTH signed a letter sent to Variety accusing Schwahn of sexual harassment, which led to Schwahn being suspended from his job as showrunner on E!’s now canceled show The Royals.Bush also shared some lighter memories from the set, including bringing her own personal catchphrase of “Hi friends” to the character of Brooke. “I put that in the show because my college roommate Ali and I used to say that to each other on the USC campus,” said Bush, joking that she deserves a writing credit.“I really struggled to relate to so many things about her,” said Bush of her on-screen character. “I had to do so much work to feel like I could play her and something about that, we did the show over nine years, brought us closer and closer together. There were ways that she would behave and things she would say and things she would do that I was like, I don’t know that I could ever, but in some ways, we were really similar.”

 

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Can’t take us anywhere ... #ReunitedAndItFeelsSoGood Thank you to @fwbcharityevents for bringing our #framily together for the belly laughs AND for great causes #TheGirlProject #StJudes

A post shared by Sophia Bush (@sophiabush) on Feb 23, 2019 at 11:21pm PST

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