Coming clean. During an in-depth interview on Andy Cohen’s radio show Andy Cohen Live, Sophia Bush spoke about the allegations made against One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn, noting that the show was great – when he wasn’t on set.
“Look, my mom is a crazy Italian lady from New Jersey, the first time Mark Schwahn grabbed my ass I hit him in front of six other producers, and I hit him f—cking hard,” Bush revealed, adding she was 21 at the time. “He came back to LA and I was told years later by one of the then writers who became an EP, that he came back being like ‘that f—cking entitled b—ch! Who does she think she is?’ and this very sweet man Mike who I love and is like a ride or die for me was like ‘Maybe you shouldn’t touch the girls.’”
The actress, 35, then added that Schwahn gave Mike an option to “shut up and keep your job or get out.”
Bush was one of 18 One Tree Hill stars who came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Schwahn in November. He was later fired from his role as showrunner/creator/executive producer on E!’s The Royals.
“It was very clear to him to stay away from me. You heard comments you knew about things he said to people, we knew about the late night texts. We knew when he was super obsessed with one girl on our show that he would try to bang down her hotel room door in the middle of the night,” she continued.
The activist also commented on those who ask her why she didn’t just leave the show when it all began. (She was part of One Tree Hill from its beginning in 2003 until the end in 2012.)
“First of all, why am I supposed to suffer and kill my own career because someone can’t keep their dick in their pants? Second of all, there is a whole crew of people don’t know about,” she explained. “It’s the reason I am angry about Roseanne being hired back to TV at all, 200 people lost their jobs because she is a psychotic racist.”
Two years after One Tree Hill wrapped, Bush landed the lead role on NBC’s Chicago P.D. and after four seasons, she abruptly left without reason.
“There were rumors that you left because of your costars’ poor behavior. Is that true? Is that why you left?” Cohen asked her during the interview. After a brief pause, Bush answered, “It’s a complicated question to answer only because 99.9 percent of the people who are on that show are my family, and they are people I would go to war for. They are people who I will protect and have chosen to protect very specifically, who I love very much.”
While she did confirm the costar is still part of the show, she didn’t say who it was. “What I will say is – compared to most women that I know, and women that work in industries that are far less supportive of women than mine, if you can imagine – it’s all gravy,” she said. “To have encountered two really terrible people over the course of my career, is kind of a cakewalk.”
The Incredibles 2 star added: “It’s not as simple as A to B. There is a whole life and a whole community and a whole tremendous group of people,” she added, noting that the crew of Chicago P.D. was the best she’s ever worked with. “Life is short and life is also really really long. So you’ve gotta figure out where you want to spend your 90 hours a week.”
