Sophia Bush wants to “reclaim” ‘One Tree Hill’ with her new podcast.
The 38-year-old actress has teamed up with Hilarie Burton-Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz to reminisce on their time on the beloved CW teen soap on a new podcast titled ‘Drama Queens’, after hearing stories of people watching the show during lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said: "Quarantine hit and I was doom scrolling like everyone else. And the number of people who were posting about how in this really scary time at the start of the pandemic, they were starting ‘One Tree Hill’ over again, really kind of hit me. I was like, this show has something magic about it. It feels really evergreen to so many people.”
And after Sophia, Hilarie, and several other cast members came forward over the years to discuss the inappropriate behaviour that allegedly took place on the set of the show, Sophia has now said she’s eager to take back control.
She added: “So let's be very clear that it feels great to be executive producing this podcast together. We're like, 'Oh, who's in charge? We're in charge.' Yeah. We're in charge and it's great. I love it. I love a reclamation."
The trio have vowed to discuss their allegations of misconduct – many of which centre around the show’s creator, Mark Schwann – but they also claim they won’t “trash everything” and will also look back on their highlights from the show.
Bethany said: "We're moving forward with where we are now, and looking back and reliving the memories. There's going to be a lot of candid talk about what we experienced, but we're not trying to be like Jerry Springer and trash everything. We loved our show. We love what we're doing now."
While Hilarie added in a joint interview with People magazine: "I'm not putting anybody on the spot. That's a person-by-person thing. But what I think is great and what I want to serve as an example is taking back work that is rightfully ours.
“We put in a lot of work as young people and we're not responsible for the actions of other people. And so to reclaim that thing that's ours and that we were excited about when we were 22, 23 years old is an empowering thing to do as a grownup lady now.”
‘One Tree Hill’ premiered on the WB in 2003 and aired its final episode in 2012.
The ‘Drama Queens’ podcast is being hosted by iHeartRadio and will premiere on June 21.
