Back in the early 2000s the ladies of One Tree Hill were icons, especially to the women and girls who grew up loving the show. In 2006 during Season 4 of the show, three actresses on the show, Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton and Danneel Ackles appeared on the cover of Maxim. Now Bush and Burton, along with their co-star Bethany Joy Lenz opened up about the misogyny and abuse of power on the set of the photoshoot.
Burton started the conversation about the magazine shoot on the One Tree Hill rewatch podcast Drama Queens, saying:
Guess who wore pants in Maxim? This guy! Guys, I have kept this pair of white jeans for so long. I showed up that day and was such a righteous bitch. Such a brat, such a baby. I was like, ‘I’m wearing pants. I’m uncomfortable. Put me in the pants.’ So I’ve saved those white jeans as a testament to [that decision].
Bush also explained how they had carefully chosen their outfits that day, and then discussed how their bodies were altered after the photo shoot, she said:
We tried our hardest. We got cute vintage one pieces and high-waisted bikinis, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll wear this corset top that totally covers my tummy, and these shorts, and it’ll look like a ’50s pin-up shoot.’ And then the Photoshop they did of that outfit? Half of my ass is gone. Literally one of my legs is half of its size. … It’s like someone started to make one of my boobs bigger, then went to lunch and forgot they weren’t done. I have one normal-sized boob and one huge boob. It’s the worst.
Both Bush and Burton explained that they had to participate in the photoshoot. The actress behind Brooke explained that she was given an ultimatum when she said she didn’t want to do it, she explained:
We got told we had to do it. Because [my character] Brooke had been so sexualized on the show and the whole idea of this ‘Hometown Hottie’ was Rachel’s storyline, I was like, ‘If the girls want to do it, that’s great. I don’t. I have gone to battle trying to make Brooke less of this thing that you guys have tried to force me into. I don’t want to do it.’ I literally got told: ‘If you don’t go and shoot this cover with your costars, we will guarantee that you will never be let out for a press day, a movie, an event, any of your charities — we will keep you here forever.'
Along with being forced into the shoot, Burton also explained that the “boss” who visited the set of the Maxim shoot had given her an iPod with music that he had thought “was applicable” to her. She said it was given to her to put Bush “in her place” and make Danneel Ackles “jealous.” Bush said the situation was “scary and uncomfortable.”
Burton, who ended up leaving the One Tree Hill cast early, and praised her co-star for convincing her to do it, has been open about the abuse on the set of the CW show, and how it still affects her. She explained that she will be proud if her daughter tells someone off because she wished she “had had the ability to do that.”
The other host of the podcast, Bethany Joy Lenz explained that she felt like she had been “replaced” because a different actress was put on the cover with Burton and Bush rather than her. She explained that she was told she wasn’t asked by Maxim because she “was too fat” and “wasn’t the ‘hot girl.’” This was news to Bush and Burton, and both actresses were shocked and angry when they learned that the magazine didn’t ask Lenz to do the shoot. This was because they had been told she refused to do the photoshoot.
This is not the first uncomfortable story to come from the actresses, on their podcast they have talked about many uncomfortable and scary situations they have been put in. Eventually, everything the people on One Tree Hill became known, and the showrunner of it and later The Royals Mark Schwahn was fired from The Royals over sexual harassment allegations.
These three actresses started the Drama Queens podcast back in 2021, and Bush explained that they were nervous to speak about their on-set experiences because they were “scared to break hearts.” However, now, they like talking about the show, and Lenz explained that rewatching it has been “healing.”
If you are interested in watching One Tree Hill along with these actresses, you can do so with a Hulu subscription.
