Sophia Bush Isn’t Playing By Hollywood’s Rules Hollywood’s Rules
While most celebrity Twitter feeds are dominated by endless selfies, mindless musings, and photos designed to incite FOMO, the Chicago P.D. star is using social media to connect with fans on a personal level and inspire change — 140 characters at a time.
While the roles Sophia Bush has played over her 12-year career have varied wildly — from One Tree Hill’s dramatic cheerleader-turned-fashion-designer Brooke Davis to Chicago P.D.’s junkie-turned-detective Erin Lindsay — there is one trait every character she takes on shares: “I could never play someone who didn’t have an opinion,” Bush told BuzzFeed over coffee at Le Pain Quotidien in L.A. “For me, there has to be a perspective, there has to be a substance. And as I get to know myself better, the women I can step into become better and better.”
Voicing her own opinions has always come naturally to Bush. “My mom jokes that I was Joan of Arc in a diaper,” she said with a laugh, looking back on a childhood that was largely spent doing community service in Pasadena, Calif. “I was running around, defending the defenseless, since I came out of the womb.” It made sense, then, that she dreamed of a life far from Hollywood for most of her childhood. “I wanted to be a doctor since I was a small child, so that was an interesting conversation to have with my parents,” the 31-year-old recalled, attributing the 180-degree swap to discovering a passion for acting after auditioning for high school plays.
Bush’s parents backed her dreams — especially since they saw this new career path hadn’t altered her priorities. Though she quickly obtained management (a tough task made easier when you live so close to L.A.), Bush refused to let acting detract from her schooling, only agreeing to go on auditions for jobs that filmed during the summer or over spring break. “I remember my agent saying it felt like I was treating my career like an extracurricular activity — and I was,” she said. “School came first.”
But after tossing her high school graduation cap up in the air, Bush decided to dedicate herself 100% to acting, and, within less than two years, she booked a lead on One Tree Hill, a WB drama (which later aired on The CW) that, when it launched in 2003, followed the lives of two high school–aged half-brothers, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty). Bush would play Brooke Davis, a wild, carefree girl and an early love interest for Lucas. The only hitch? The show filmed across the country from her friends and family in California.
“I think my life would have been very different if the show filmed in L.A.,” Bush said of the move to North Carolina to film One Tree Hill.
She added, “But there were years where I would have given anything to have been at home and been able to crawl into my best friend’s bed and eat ice cream.”
Those brutal and difficult times Bush is referring to were likely her five-month marriage and subsequent divorce from co-star Chad Michael Murray, whom she wed shortly after the show’s second season wrapped and from whom she split during Season 3.
But in the end, those aren’t the major life events Bush focuses on when looking back on the show’s impressive nine-year run. “Twenty-nine babies were born between our cast and crew while we were filming that show,” she said, her face instantly lighting up. “I watched kids grow up, I saw people get married, I held people through divorces and breakups and deaths of parents and grandparents; there was so much life on those sets, which is why I was a hysterical mess for the