Watch or listen to the episode
Sophia Bush: Brooke Davis, Breakups & Beginning Again
Full original episode. Highlights below summarise the discussion; claims and opinions are attributed to the speakers.From reluctant theatre student to One Tree Hill
In the Call Her Daddy episode “Sophia Bush: Brooke Davis, Breakups & Beginning Again,” host Alex Cooper speaks with Bush about the memoir-writing process and pivotal chapters of her life. The discussion is Bush’s personal account and includes recollections and interpretations that are not independently corroborated here.
Bush says she once imagined becoming a heart surgeon and discovered acting only after her school required her to perform in a play. While studying at the University of Southern California, she transferred from acting to journalism, but an unsuccessful television pilot led indirectly to an audition for Brooke Davis. Shortly after turning 21, she left college for North Carolina, expecting she might return within a few years; One Tree Hill ultimately ran for nine seasons.
Brooke Davis brought confidence—and conflict
Bush recalls arriving on set as a relatively inexperienced performer and feeling intimidated while portraying an exceptionally confident character. Over time, she says playing Brooke made her examine why bold women are judged differently from men. Learning to understand Brooke’s behaviour, even when it embarrassed her, helped Bush find her own assertiveness.
That assertiveness became important when Bush objected to how Brooke was sexualised. She describes refusing a wardrobe request intended to make her appear topless in a hot-tub scene and says she challenged a producer over the show’s repeated emphasis on her body. Bush believes the character’s presentation also shaped public assumptions about her intelligence and abilities.
Cast solidarity after alleged workplace misconduct
Bush alleges that the show’s boss fostered distrust among women on the production, making it harder for them to compare experiences. She says cast members eventually created informal safeguards for newer colleagues, including joining dinners so women would not meet him alone. In 2017, as media inquiries followed a former writer’s public account, Bush says 18 women signed a collective statement designed to describe alleged misconduct while protecting individual privacy.
Bush says the process restored relationships that had been damaged by shame, silence and conflicting stories. She recounts repairing her friendship with Hilarie Burton after they revisited assumptions about why they had grown apart, concluding that better communication revealed alleged manipulation they had not understood at the time.
Reconsidering relationships and learning to choose herself
Discussing past marriages, Bush frames her central lesson as learning to trust herself rather than prioritising other people’s expectations. She says her ability to endure extreme workloads also enabled her to appear fine during personal distress. By around 40, she had resolved that resilience should not mean looking happy while privately struggling.
Bush says she and Ashlyn Harris had known each other for years before their friendship became romantic. Addressing public speculation, she states that both had filed for divorce and were living separately from their former spouses before their first date. Bush says she later proposed, and the couple chose an intimate backyard wedding with close friends rather than another highly public celebration. She describes the day as unusually private, grounded and joyful.