Sophia Bush says 'One Tree Hill' creator Mark Schwahn wouldn't let her have bangs because cheerleaders who wouldn't 'have sex' with him in high school had them
Sophia Bush said on the "Drama Queens" podcast she wasn't allowed to have bangs on "One Tree Hill."
Bush said creator Mark Schwahn told her that cheerleaders who wouldn't "have sex" with him had bangs.
Bush, who hosts with "OTH" costars Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz, called Schwahn "our Voldemort."
On Monday's episode of the "Drama Queens" podcast, former "One Tree Hill" star Sophia Bush recalled a troubling exchange she had with the show's creator Mark Schwahn when he saw she had grown bangs.
"He goes, 'who the fuck told you you could cut bangs? You know who had bangs? All the fucking cheerleaders in high school who never wanted to have sex with me,'" Bush told her cohosts Bethany Joy Lenz and Hilarie Burton Morgan and their guest Craig Sheffer, who played Keith Scott on "One Tree Hill."
Bush also remembered her reaction: "I was like what's happening? What's happening? Is this what I'm getting yelled at for?"
She described Schwahn's behavior as "so controlling and gross and misogynistic and creepy." Recalling the moment, she said, "Mark lost his mind on me" and referred to him as "our Voldemort."
A representative for Schwahn didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The former "Chicago PD" star's comments come around the 21:20 mark of the podcast but are part of a larger conversation the "Drama Queens" hosts were having with Sheffer about how they were treated by certain people who were running the show.
Sheffer appeared to be unaware of the letter that Bush, Lenz, and Burton Morgan signed in 2017 to support former "One Tree Hill" writer Audrey Wauchope that was published by Variety.
In the letter, many female cast and crew members that worked on the teen drama (which ran from 2003 to 2012 on The WB and The CW) said that they were "manipulated psychologically and emotionally" by Schwahn.
"Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be," the letter read in part.
Bush has told the story about getting a negative reaction to her bangs on previous episodes of the podcast, but she hadn't mentioned Schwahn by name in connection to the incident until now. She explained that she had dyed her hair black and cut bangs for a movie that filmed when "One Tree Hill" was on break. She didn't name the film, but it's presumably the 2006 horror film "Stay Alive."
On the same podcast episode, Sheffer told the women that he experienced similar behavior, even though he was older than they were at the time they filmed the show.
He said that unnamed people in charge were oddly particular about his character's wardrobe and grooming and when he pushed back a little bit they told his team they would fire him if the "power struggle" continued. He said the threats were presented in a way that could "break down your soul."
Burton Morgan also recalled a conversation she had with someone while filming her last season of the show when she was told that her hair was too red. "I was like, 'I'm gone. I'm a ghost. It doesn't matter anymore.'"
New episodes of "Drama Queens" are released on Mondays.
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