Sophia Bush Reveals ‘One Tree Hill’ Executives Said She Wasn’t Sexy Enough for Brooke, Then Too Much, in Memoir Excerpt
Brooke Davis is one of those TV characters who’s hard to imagine played by anyone else. The cheerleader-turned-fashion-designer anchored ‘One Tree Hill‘ for 9 seasons, from 2003 to 2012, and Sophia Bush made her one of the defining teen drama heroines of the era. But getting the role wasn’t as smooth as fans might assume.
Bush has hinted at the story before. Years ago, she joked at a 2011 reunion panel that the process felt like Goldilocks, and that she got it right on the third try. Now she’s telling it in far more detail in her upcoming memoir, ‘And I Will Tell You Mine’, due out October 27.
In an exclusive excerpt published by Variety, Bush describes how executives told her after her first audition that she wasn’t sexy enough to play Brooke. After a second attempt, she was told she was too much. The back-and-forth reveals how narrowly the show’s most iconic character came together.
Bush writes that she drove to Warner Bros. Studios in the Valley and had fun reading for the people in the room. It felt good to make them laugh. Afterward, her manager passed along feedback: the executives loved her but weren’t sure she was sexy enough, and they asked if she could try again.
It’s a striking note for a character who was so closely associated with confidence. It also set up the strange tightrope the actress was about to walk.
For round two, Bush went for a hot-girl-meets-punk-rock look. She wore a military miniskirt, stilettos with sharp gold heels, a dark, low-cut tank top and smudgy eyeliner. The response was that it was too much, and that the producers wanted high school sexy, not college sexy.
She writes that she was at a loss. Wasn’t this why shows had entire wardrobe departments, she asked, to dress characters and help create their looks? It’s a pointed question that lands even harder in light of how much she later fought to shape Brooke.
Help came from an unexpected place. A woman from casting offered to help Bush find the happy medium, as she puts it: sexy but not too sexy, cute but not so cute it wasn’t sexy, and high school but not so juvenile it was too innocent. Bush notes that the same casting office was testing someone for a recast of Haley after, funnily enough, that actress had read for Brooke and wasn’t a fit.
Eventually she landed the part. The excerpt says the moment is when Brooke Davis was born.
The audition story is just one chapter in a long, complicated relationship with the series. Bush has spoken openly about fighting with the writers over scenes she felt were inappropriate, and she has described the workplace as unhealthy. In 2017, 18 women who worked on the show wrote a letter accusing creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment.
She has revisited that time with former costars Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz on their ‘Drama Queens’ podcast. The conversations have explored behind-the-scenes moments, including the way Brooke was sexualized on screen. The memoir promises to add to that picture.
The book is billed as an unflinching look at her life. It covers her bohemian childhood in Los Angeles and her unexpected road from journalism student to actor. It also covers the life-changing decade of ‘One Tree Hill’, where she fought for her character’s integrity.
Beyond that, Bush writes about marriage and divorce in the spotlight, and her years on ‘Chicago P.D.’, where she says a dream job forced her into 2 lives. One was as a badge-wearing protector on screen, and the other was as a woman who endured abuse and silence. The publisher also promises a funnier side, with stories about vacations gone hilariously wrong.
The excerpt lands at a time when conversations about how young actresses are treated in Hollywood continue to evolve. The contradictory feedback Bush describes, with no single standard anyone could meet, will feel familiar to many women in the industry. It also shows how much of a character’s identity can be shaped before a single scene is shot.
For fans of the show, it adds a new layer to a beloved role. Brooke’s confidence, humor and loyalty were all built on a foundation of someone who had to find her own way through the audition process. Bush clearly wants readers to know how hard she worked for it.
Were you surprised by Sophia Bush’s audition story?
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