Sophia Bush claims she and her 'One Tree Hill' co-stars were manipulated by "grown-ups who we trusted" to keep their pay down.
The 38-year-old actress played Brooke Davis on the teen drama - which ran from 2003 to 2012 - for its entire nine-season run but she now looks back on the experience and can see that the working environment was not always positive and there were things that happened to keep the cast separate and not aware of each other's salaries.
Speaking on the 'Chicks in the Office' podcast, she alleged: "It was weird because, in some ways, we were treated like adults. We were expected to be these adults and yet, we were also looked at kind of as pawns.
“We had grown-ups who we trusted, who now we understand were being really controlling and manipulative - who didn’t want us to be close ’cause they thought we would band together and ask for more money.
"It’s just so weird and those were just things we were not aware of at the time.
“There was no social media where people were talking about this stuff and giving people advice, and figuring out if you were being paid equitably. We didn’t have any of that. We were just in the dark."
Sophia - who was playing a teenage character even though she was in her 20s - insists that she and her co-stars, who included Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty and Hilarie Burton, were not even given proper instructions or direction in their roles.
She said: "Looking back on it, we can see the ways in which we were fetishized and we had this lens of adultification put over us with this idea that we were supposed to know everything and have answers, and be, ultimately, professional.
“When we didn’t even know what the technical terms were. It was like, ‘Get on your mark!’ And you’re like, ‘What are you talking about? What is a mark?'”
The former 'Chicago P.D.' star is now in a position where she will not tolerate any "bulls***" on set and will happily use her voice to speak out about anything she is not happy with.
She added: “I want my sets to be really professional - we’re not here to tolerate a bunch of dilly-dallying or bulls**t.
“I want sets that I work on to be places that people can ask any question and get it answered, where we can hold ourselves to a degree of excellence as a challenge, not as a threat, and where it can just be fun."
