Over the years, we’ve learned a lot about the negative experiences the women of One Tree Hill went through. In the wake of sexual harassment allegations against its creator, Mark Schwahn, stories about how the cast and crew were mistreated have come to light. Now, Sophia Bush has shared a story about how a scene involving a “nude bra” was a breaking point for her and this show.
This conversation came up because Bush was asked about pushing back against the sexualization of Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill. Amid the discussion on Call Her Daddy, the actress recalled one moment she considers a turning point. It involved a scene where Brooke broke into her neighbors’ backyard to go hottubbing. When it came to wardrobe for the scene, the actress was given a nude strapless bra. She pushed back against the choice, explaining:
And they gave me bathing suit bottoms but a nude strapless bra. And I was like, ‘No, I want a bathing suit top.’ And they were like, ‘No, you’re supposed to look topless.’ And I’m like, ‘But it’s a nude [bra]. It’s literally just going to look like my breasts are out in the water on screen. Like they’re not down at the bottom of the hot tub; they’re right here.’ And wardrobe was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you; this is from the producers in LA.’ And I was kind of like, ‘I’m saying no, and you’re saying no to me, and it’s my body.’
It would seem Bush is describing a scene in Season 1, Episode 11, where Brooke and Lucas sneak into a hot tub. In the sequence, the actress takes off her clothes outside the hot tub, and then, while in the water, she removes her bra.
While they filmed that, she was given a nude strapless bra, as she described, and she actively asked to wear something else. They said no, and that was a breaking point for the actress, as she explained:
It was sort of a straw that broke the camel’s back, because there were more and more and more of these very expository scenes. And I was like, ‘Romance and sex and whatever,’ I mean, God, I didn’t have a healthy relationship with any of it then. Who did? But I was like, ‘I get some of it. I don’t think it should be the only thing this person does.’ And so we got into it, and we got into this screaming match on my flip phone.
Looking back, Sophia Bush said she was fearless when it came to defending herself during these moments. She literally called out her boss at one point, explaining:
It was this moment where I was so naive that I didn’t know it was dangerous to defend myself so loudly. And I literally said to my boss, I go, ‘Keep writing these scenes; I dare you. I’m going to start coming to set every day in a turtleneck.’
As the conversation went on, Alex Cooper quoted part of Bush’s book in which she said that her boss told her she’s “the one with the fucking rack everyone wants to see.” In response, the star of the beloved CW show said:
And I was like, ‘Is it appropriate for my boss, who’s old enough to be my father, to say that to me on the phone?’ Like, you speak to women that way? Crazy. But the culture was so bad.
She continued saying that in the world of pop culture during the early 2000s, she and other women were treated like “blow-up dolls.”
In the years since, she and her co-stars have been open about the mistreatment and sexualization they faced while working on this show about young romance. For example, Hilarie Burton, who played Peyton, spoke out about how the abuse she faced on set affects how she parents her kids. This latest story from Bush is also not the first time she’s spoken about disagreements she got into over how Brooke was being portrayed.
Despite this very negative situation, Bush does love the show, she defends how it ended, and she hosted a re-watch podcast with her co-stars. However, she’s also very candid about what she went through and the mistreatment she faced.
