Sophia Bush recalls working on ‘every kind of abusive’ TV show set in past

Sophia Bush is opening up about a difficult chapter in her career, revealing she experienced intense emotional and physical trauma while working on a past TV series.

During the June 3 episode of the Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky podcast, Bush, 42, described a toxic dynamic with a colleague “old enough to be my father,” which developed early on after she joined the NBC show — a role she once considered a dream job.

“I had a workplace ongoing trauma revolving around an unending situation with someone old enough to be my father,” Bush shared. “I was like, ‘What is happening?’”

Although she didn’t mention Chicago P.D. by name, Bush clarified that the experience came after her nine-year run on One Tree Hill. She was later cast as Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D., a role she played from 2014 to 2017.

When asked by host Monica Lewinsky whether she experienced something “emotionally abusive” in what was supposed to be a professional setting, Bush responded, “every kind of abusive.”

Reflecting on why she didn’t leave earlier, Bush explained that patterns from her early career held her back.

“I had the opportunity after two years to go,” she said. “I did the thing I learned to do and said, ‘I will not have my integrity diminished by someone else’s behavior. I will be unflappable. I will come to work and do my job.’ And I couldn’t.”

The actress described the following two years on set as “like physical hell,” adding that the emotional toll began to manifest physically. “Spontaneous illness,” “covered in hives,” “really crazy weight fluctuation,” and hair loss were just some of the symptoms she endured.

She also shared that she developed insomnia and “crippling anxiety.”

“To be hit with anxiety in such a way that I could barely be out of the house. If people touched me in public, I would jump out of my skin,” she said. “I couldn’t talk to people anymore. I couldn’t talk to strangers anymore. I couldn’t be looked at anymore.”

Bush described the experience as a “physical attack” on her body.

“My body was not my own. I couldn’t regulate anymore,” she explained. She also claimed she had to be constantly alert to avoid physical discomfort on set.

“Because I had to go to work ready for war all the time, I had to learn where to stand to not get elbowed in the ribs or how to block a scene to not be touched. It was just exhausting.”

She said she finally left the series in April 2017 — just months before the #MeToo movement took hold. According to Bush, she later received a call from a network executive acknowledging the situation.

“By October [2017], I got a call from an executive apologizing for what they’d done and not done,” she claimed. “And [they] said, ‘We’re very aware we just made it out of that unscathed.’”

Bush recalled her reaction, “I was like, ‘Glad you did, I’m in so much therapy. I’ve been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, but I’m thrilled you guys didn’t get dragged through the press.’”

She added, “It’s a weird thing to deal with.”

While she initially kept quiet about the reason behind her exit, Bush offered a glimpse in a 2017 UnStyled podcast interview with Refinery29. She revealed that during the third and fourth seasons, she gave producers an option, improve the environment or write her off.

“It was then that I realized I’d been drowning. It was then that I knew just how miserable I was going to work every day,” she said. “I had to respect myself in a situation where I didn’t feel respected.”

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