Sophia Bush recalls struggle with OTH writers who sexualized her teenage character

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Sophia Bush has long been outspoken about the shady happenings behind the scenes of her breakout series, One Tree Hill.

In 2017, the actress joined her co-stars and crew members in signing a letter that accused showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment.

She recently revealed the struggles she faced with writers sexualizing her teenage character and how she fought back.

The 37-year-old starred as Brooke Davis in the WB/CW teen soap for its nine-season run from 2003 to 2012.

While chatting on Ashley Graham's podcast Pretty Big Deal, she said: 'I brought a lot [of myself] to her.

'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."'

She added: '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 was a long time ago. I remember my boss kept writing scenes for me to be in my underwear.

'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."'

When the show began, the character of Brooke was a teenage cheerleader, often depicted as the shallow party girl before her character evolved over the seasons.

Bush said her 'boss' justified the character direction by telling her: 'Well you're not 16.'

'And I 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***ing rack everybody wants to see." And I was like, "What?! Well, I'm not doing it!"'

The actress explained how she fought back by wearing a turtleneck in one episode 'just sort of to be spiteful.'

She added: '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." 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.'

Last year, Bush also explained how the producers exploited her divorce with co-star Chad Michael Murray.

Murray starred in the first six seasons as Lucas Scott, who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Bush's character.

The actors married in 2005 after meeting on set, subsequently breaking things off only a few months later before their divorce was finalized in 2006.

She said on Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert: 'There was no space to self-reflect.

'There was like, "This is my integrity, this is my job, I will not falter for one second or one minute ever on this set. I will be the most f***ing professional person anyone has ever seen.'

Even after they divorced in real life, their characters often ended up romantically entwined.

She said of the producers: 'They made practice of taking advantage of people’s personal lives and not just for me and for my ex — for other actors on the show who would share, like as you do when you get close to people, deeply personal things that were happening in their lives and they would wind up in storylines. It wasn’t okay.'

Bush added: 'It was opportunistic and ugly and when you run a show, you’re like a parent. You’re supposed to protect your flock and it was the opposite of that.

'And I imagine that was hard for [Murray] as well. It was a very ugly situation on their part. I think they kind of lived for the drama.'

In 2017, she joined co-stars Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz and Jana Kramer in supporting colleague Audrey Wauchope, who accused the show's creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment.