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Sophia Bush refuses to live in the past.
In an interview with Insider, the 39-year-old actress and activist opened up about the hardships she claimed to have previously endured on the sets of her former TV shows, One Tree Hill and Chicago P.D.
“I do feel that it’s incredibly important to have these conversations,” she told the publication. “I also feel like it’s really important to respect myself, my mental health and my own boundaries.”
Before shifting the discussion to focus on her current role in the NBC medical drama, Good Sam, Bush said: “I’ve given a lot of advice to women and anyone who’s in a situation like that.”
“I would so much rather be celebrating [Good Sam] than be continually asked to relive unpleasantries from the past,” she added, noting how Good Sam has been “the best experience” of her life.
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RELATED: Sophia Bush Is Reuniting with One Tree Hill Costars Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz on Good Sam
Bush previously starred on all nine seasons of One Tree Hill as Brooke Davis. The series ran on the WB and then the CW from 2003 to 2012.
Since wrapping work on the popular drama, Bush has been vocal about some of the negative aspects of her experience. She was among many former female cast members to sign a letter published in Variety in 2017, supporting writer Audrey Wauchope as she alleged how series creator Mark Schwahn “psychologically and emotionally” abused women working on set. (Schwahn has never spoken publicly about any of the allegations.)
Despite this, Bush has teamed up with her OTH costars, Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz, for their Drama Queens podcast, where they rewatch the series and provide behind-the-scenes details from their time on the show.
“Those girls are my family and we spend so much time together, whether it’s on FaceTime or whether we’re recording episodes of ‘Drama Queens,'” Bush told Insider.
“We’ve forged such a friendship and been able to, as a unit, reclaim so much of what was good and joyful about our first job together while taking out the respective trash,” she continued. “And we’re just more in love with each other than we’ve ever been.”
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Bush also exited the popular NBC drama, Chicago P.D., in 2017 after claiming she was assaulted and endured other abusive behaviors on the show’s set.
She first addressed her departure with Refinery 29’s then-editor-in-chief, Christene Barberich, on the UnStyled podcast in December of that year, saying she “knew by the end of the second season [she] couldn’t do that job anymore.”
Bush later opened up about her time on Chicago P.D. on Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Expert podcast in 2018, explaining that while there were “aspects of [the show] that I loved,” the work conditions, including getting sick in the cold Chicago weather, were not acceptable for her.
“I quit because what I’ve learned is, I’ve been so programmed to be a good girl and to be a workhorse and be a tug boat, that I have always prioritized tugging the ship for the crew, for the show, for the group, ahead of my own health,” said the actress, who played Detective Erin Lindsay. “The reality was that my body was, like, falling apart, because I was really, really unhappy.”
NBC did not comment on the matter at the time, while executive producer Dick Wolf simply told reporters during the 2017 Television Critics Association summer press tour that Bush “wanted to leave.”
Good Sam premiered on January 5 and is currently airing its first season on NBC.
