Hilarie Burton Recalls ‘Deeply Uncomfortable’ Final Day of Filming One Tree Hill: ‘It Felt Like a Funeral’
As Hilarie Burton notes on the latest episode of her One Tree Hill rewatch podcast, “Peyton Sawyer doesn’t have nice moments.” So it’s only fitting that Burton’s final day of filming the teen drama was a “deeply uncomfortable experience.”
Burton breaks it all down on the June 24 installment of Drama Queens, vividly recalling how she felt shooting her last scene in the hospital after her character had given birth. Fifteen years have passed, but Burton remembers it like it was yesterday — for better or worse.
More from TVLine
The show’s Powers That Be, who had already caused myriad problems for Burton and her female co-stars throughout the series, were still in denial that she and Chad Michael Murray were actually leaving, so everyone else was already wrapped and sent home while the two still had one last scene to film. Murray managed to wrangle his co-stars back onto the set to say goodbye, but the end result wasn’t quite as uplifting as he intended.
“Between the prosthetic that was on my belly, everything I was hooked up to and the positioning of the camera, it was better for me to just stay on the bed than it was to get up,” Burton recalls. “Everyone was saying goodbye to me, but it felt like a funeral. I’m literally laying there like I’m in a coffin. James Lafferty comes up to the side of the bed and is like, ‘Hey, uh, have a good summer.’ It was so awkward and awful. People would put their head on my hair and say, ‘Well, I’ll see you next season,’ and I kept being like, ‘No you won’t! What are you guys talking about?’ It was an out-of-body experience, [like] being at my own character’s funeral, knowing I wasn’t going to see a lot of you [for years].”
Burton manages to maintain her composure throughout the episode, until she pulls out a ring that co-star (and podcast co-host) Sophia Bush had given her as a gift on her final day. The card attached to the gift read “A 1920s piece, perfect for Paris,” as Burton had planned an extended Parisian getaway to celebrate her long-overdue freedom from the difficult working experience.
“You were the only person who believed that I was leaving,” Burton told Bush, fighting to speak through tears. “Having Moira [Kelly] say it was really important, and having you believe it was really important. It was a bad time and you did something really nice in that moment. I’ve moved houses 8 million times and that has always stayed in the drawer next to my bed … and it will stay there.”
It’s a touching moment between the longtime friends, one of many that fans have gotten to enjoy since Drama Queens began in 2021. Doing the podcast has been incredibly cathartic for the show’s stars, who have spent the past few years revealing countless stories of manipulation and abuse behind the scenes of the beloved WB-turned-CW drama.
“The closure feels cool,” Burton says. “I think I can walk away with the narrative of Lucas and Peyton and feel so good about it in a way that I wasn’t allowed to for a long time.”
Despite her character no longer being on the show, Burton is expected to continue co-hosting Drama Queens alongside Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz, both of whom remained with One Tree Hill through its final three seasons. The next podcast episode will tackle the Season 7 premiere, titled “4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Traveling Abroad).”
Are you a fan of the Drama Queens podcast? Are you looking forward to potentially hearing what Burton thinks of One Tree Hill‘s remaining seasons, considering this would likely be her first time watching them? Drop a comment with your thoughts, whatever they may be, below.
Best of TVLine
Summer TV Calendar: Your Guide to 85+ Season and Series Premieres
Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Showtime Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?)
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
