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Sophia Bush Isn't Afraid to Speak Truth to Power

This article is part of a series profiling the inspiring women of Together Live, a band of all-female storytellers who will travel across the U.S. this fall, spreading love, laughter, and hope. In 10 cities, big and small, the intimate one-night-only events serve as a reminder that no matter what divides us, women are strongest when we come together. Learn more about Together Live here—and get excited to join the party.

You may remember Sophia Bush as the it-girl of the early aughts. Starring as Brooke on the teen juggernaut, One Tree Hill, and as Beth in the ultimate revenge film, John Tucker Must Die—the media feverishly covered her every move. But what they weren’t writing about was what was happening beneath the surface—the fact that Bush was coming into her own as an activist. Bush first became vocal about humanitarian causes in regard to the environment, but since has spoken out about everything from the harassment she’s experienced on sets, to voting rights. Last year she participated in the viral hashtag #WhyIDidntReport movement—thanking Christine Blasey Ford and sharing her own experience of assault. Before that, she was also a founding member of Time’s Up.

Here, Bush let’s us in on the people who have told her to not speak out, but rather to stay in her lane, and why she refused to listen.

Glamour: You’ve been a loud and proud advocate for the causes close to your heart, whether it’s your work with Time’s Up or I Am a Voter. How did you first decide to trust your voice, and fight for the things you care about?

Sophia Bush: In my experience, the truth itself has an energy, like a drum beat. It makes noise inside of me. And there is nothing to do but speak it. It will never quiet down, nor should it. I’ve always been outspoken about justice, but I do remember when that personal tendency went public after Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster it caused. As a lifelong lover of this planet of ours, I was incensed at the environmental injustice I was witnessing. And I still am! We have so much work to do. But the work won’t get done if we don’t first have the conversation about the issue at hand. That’s step number one. And we can take our action steps from there.

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Sophia Bush Opens Up About the Alleged Harassment She Faced on the *One Tree Hill* Set

Back in November, in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the rise of the #MeToo movement, members of the cast and crew of One Tree Hill—including Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton—released a letter accusing the creator of that show, Mark Schwahn, of sexual harassment.

“Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally. More than one of us is still in treatment for post-traumatic stress,” the letter read. “Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be. Many of us were spoken to in ways that ran the spectrum from deeply upsetting, to traumatizing, to downright illegal. And a few of us were put in positions where we felt physically unsafe.”

Now, in a new interview with Andy Cohen, Bush is taking the conversation even further, describing a time she says Schwahn touched her inappropriately. “The first time Mark Schwahn grabbed my ass I hit him in front of six other producers and I hit him fucking hard,” she told Cohen. “And he came back to L.A. and I was told years later by one of the then writers who became an EP that he came back being like, ‘That fucking entitled bitch who does she think she is,’ and this very sweet man named Mike who I love and who is like a ride or die for me was like, ‘Maybe you just shouldn’t touch the girls,’ and, ya know, Mark gave him the option of shut up and keep your job or get out.”

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Bush found herself in a difficult situation: quit and “kill” her career or stay in an uncomfortable workplace. “Because this is what people don’t understand, they go, ‘Oh well why don’t you just leave?’” she says. “First of all, why am I supposed to suffer and kill my own career because somebody else can’t keep their dick in their pants? Second of all, there is a whole crew that people don’t know about.”

Bush stayed, and Schwahn helmed One Tree Hill for eight seasons. However, after the OTH allegations were made, additional ones were levied against him by the cast and crew of The Royals. He was investigated and subsequently fired from that show in December.

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