One Tree Hill Actresses Felt Threatened During Their Maxim Shoot, While Bethany Joy Lenz Was Told She Was Too Fat To Be Part Of The Shoot
Actresses Hilarie Burton and Sophia Bush did not enjoy their 2006 Maxim shoot while on the show because of their unpleasant experience. Even their co-star Bethany Joy Lenz agrees with the ladies because she, too, had a horrible experience during the shoot.
Bethany was told she would not join her colleagues and appear in the magazine because she was allegedly too fat. The three women directed their allegations toward their previous bosses during the newest episode of Drama Queen, their One Tree Hill rewatch podcast.
Hilarie, Sophia, and Bethany recalled how the three of them were part of a group of crew and cast who wrote an open letter accusing Mark Schwahn, their One Tree Hill director, of sexual harassment.
The magazine cover starred Hilarie and Sophia with their other co-stars, Danneel Harris Ackles. The shoot was part of a cross-promotion associated with one series episode where Hilarie’s character, Brooke, breaks Danneel’s character, Rachel Gatina, for Maxim’s cover with a theme of Hometown Hotties.
In their podcast episode, the ladies emphasized that the people behind the show were focused on ways to boost their male viewership ahead of the Maxim shoot.
Sophia mentioned that they needed to do the Maxim shoot, especially because her One Tree Hill character, Brooke Davis, was sexualized on the show, and the concept of hometown hottie was linked to the whole Rachel Gatina storyline. At first, Sophia stated that if the other girls were up to the shoot, that was fine, but Sophia was keen not to be part of it.
The actress was insistent because she did her best to make her character, Brooke, less sexualized, and the photo shoot would go against that goal. But she was told that if she didn’t do the shoot with her co-stars, she would never be allowed to join press days or be part of a movie, an event, any public appearance, even for charity.
Hilarie also recalled her experience when she was set aside at the production office. She remembered sitting on the floor while their boss was sitting on the couch. He gave her and the rest of the girls a friendly pitch about how various magazines had already featured other shows on their front pages.
What struck Hilarie was when their boss told them that nobody wanted them. And now that a magazine was finally taking notice of them, they were messing it up and turning away from the opportunity.
Additionally, the ladies got the impression that nobody wanted to feature them, so the studio was contemplating canceling their show. The cover was the buzz they needed to boost the number of male viewers.
And if this was not enough, the studio put them through a guilt trip, implying they would cause their friends, co-stars, and crew members to lose their jobs.
After this memorandum slash threat, coming to the set was no longer as fun for the girls as when they had first started.
Sophia shared the same sentiment and sadly shared how she just wanted to be away from the set and go home and find solace with her family after her shoots. She said that there were instances when she didn’t want to be on their set because she stopped feeling safe there.
