A few months ago, showrunner Mark Schwahn (One Tree Hill, The Royals) was outed as a serial harasser and assailant who created an abusive work environment. The news came out after writer Audrey Wauchope posted to social media about it without naming Schwahn. 18 actors, writers and crew from One Tree Hill confirmed Wauchope’s report on the record, named Schwahn and described treatment that Schwahn subjected them to, including unwanted touching, psychological and verbal abuse. Actress Hilarie Burton even said that Schwahn’s sexual harassment caused her to stop pursuing acting opportunities at 21. Schwahn was subsequently fired as showrunner on The Royals, which is rare as E! isn’t known for making abusers face consequences.
Actress Sophia Bush is one of 18 people who signed the letter. In an interview with Andy Cohen for his radio show, Bush described Schwahn’s harassment, and said it was common on set. (This is the same interview where she admitted she didn’t really want to marry her costar Chad Michael Murray, which taken in this context explains a lot.) She said she hit Schwahn when he grabbed her butt in front of witnesses. Sophia learned later that one of her co-workers defended her for that and told Schwahn not to touch women. Schwahn threatened the man to be quiet about it or get fired.
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.”
“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.”
The way that Schwahn responded to the guy who stood up for Bush sounds very similar to the situation Wauchope originally wrote about, that even the men felt powerless. She wrote “I don’t blame the men on that staff – I truly believe they were also in a way victims of psychological abuse and didn’t know what to do.” When the boss is the one setting the tone, there’s this fear of standing up to him to protect victims because you’ll just get fired. It sounds awful. I also like how Bush called out Roseanne for what she is – a psychotic racist.
As for the rumors that Bush left Chicago P.D. last fall because of a coworker, she didn’t name the person, but said that “99.9 percent of the people who are on that show are my family.” She did sort-of confirm that someone was awful to her though. “To have encountered two really terrible people over the course of my career, is kind of a cakewalk.” Two people is more than she should have had to deal with. No one should have to give up a job because of an unreasonable or abusive person, but we’re seeing that play out on a national stage and it’s terrifying.
Bush has been promoting Incredibles 2 and was on Fallon this week. You can see her interview on YouTube. She talked about how she often rides the subway in New York City without getting noticed, and that she sees a lot of hot guys reading on the subway. She said she also loves camping and outdoor activities and recently took a trip to Alaska with her girlfriends. She’s adorable.
Also, do you remember how salty Chad Michael Murray sounded in his response to Bush saying she wasn’t into marrying him? Well his wife posted something about it too and she sounds ridiculous. She used a dumb retro meme and a bunch of hashtags. Did she not hear how things were on set? Regardless she sounds perfect for Murray.
Fashion note: I was about to gush over Sophia’s gorgeous blue dress and then I saw her in that pink and floral shirt with the mini skirt. Hit and miss. Her frayed jeans and striped t-shirt outfit is cute but it’s like she was checking off trends. I’m also including photos of her at the Incredibles 2 premiere. Something weird is going on with her makeup there. Images credit: Backgrid and WENN
Chad’s wife sounds well suited to him
This ^^
The way chad and his wife are reacting to this story tells me that they don’t even understand what she said. They make it seem like she said she was forced to marry him, which she never said. This is all ridiculous and blown out of proportion, I guess chad is enjoying his name in small headlines again
It’s funny/dumb beausevthey are feeding the story and giving her free publicity – all the while showing how petty he is and why someone wouldn’t want to be with him. It’s such an own goal. I love it.
This! I went down an Instagram rabbit hole. They are mirror images of each other. Two tacky, vain, milquetoast selfie takers.
Yep, two as**oles.
I like the way Sophia handled this. My heart goes out to her because I had a situation where my manager verbally and psychologically abused me. It was hell. To the point where I started to have physical ailments. Stress is a SOB and these tormentors need to be taken care of. One sick puppy should not be able to torment others. Good on Sophia and kudos to the man who stood up for her.
Being young in the workplace and being harassed like that is really traumatizing. When I was 15 I worked in a grocery store and was sexually assaulted and harassed weekly by my manager. He would come up behind me and push his erection into me or touch my behind, make explicity comments about wanting to take my virginity. I never told anyone or did anything, my mother was a stay at home mom and father had just been laid off so I needed to money, my parents couldn’t afford to give me bus fare for school so it was either deal with it so I could get my measly paycheck or walk 1.5 hours to school daily and not have money for lunch.
It sucks, and I’ve had other harassment/assault scenarios but this one stuck to me because of how young I was, now in my late 20s I still get super nervous when a man other than my husband comes too close to me or makes some sort of sexual joke.
I also find it very scary how many men actually partake in this kind of behavior, where did all their parents fail? I had a coworker last week tell me a very inappropriate joke: “women are like floor tiles, if you lay them right the first time you can walk all over them” – why would any man think something like that is appropriate to say in the workplace? Or to yell at a female employee, it boggles the mind that sooooo soooo soooo many men are such Pieces of sh*t!
Sorry this happened to you. It’s terrible to be dependant on a job when you have to put your safety and mental health on a back burner, especially at such a young and impressionable age. I was in a similar situation some years ago with a co worker, luckily I was a bit older and able to laugh it off a bit. When I look back on it now, I don’t know how I managed. It boggles my mind to know that their are so many men out there that think and act this way. I’ve been lucky in my life to be surrounded by a lot of great men, they are out there, but apparently in short supply.
You asked where all their parents failed? It’s not that they failed, it’s that they didn’t teach in the first place. Most behaviours are learned from parents, usually if a man treats a woman like dirt, it’s because his father did too
Her story of the male coworker defending her (that’s a good guy right there) reminds me of what Kate Beckinsale said – she confided to a male friend that Harvey Weinstein harassed her, the friend warned other women, and the friend’s career was killed.
I’m sorry all of these actresses had such a horrible experience on that show, and that Sophia went through it again later. I give her a lot of credit for walking away from that job for her own sake, even though she shouldn’t have had to.
Chad and his wife are just embarrassing.
After reading her comments in that interview, I too am now ride-or-die for Sophia Bush.
She calls it like it is and she isn’t wrong when she does – this is a seemingly rare thing amongst celebrities. A true feminist, I feel better about my past abuses when she talks about hers. That alone is crazy to me because I only just revealed in the past year that I was molested as a child and it was 25 years ago. Not an uncommon phenomena, sadly.
I have always really liked her, and I really wish the best for Sophia!