Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton, who both starred in the hit show “One Tree Hill,” have come forward to say that the show’s creator, Mark Schwahn, made them pose for a Maxim photoshoot against their will.
As per their statement, they initially turned down the offer, but Schwahn told them you have to do it to “save the show.” Because if they don’t, he will cancel it.
Read their exact words below.
Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Were Forced to do Maxim Photoshoot
Hilarie Burton started by explaining what is the idea behind the Maxim shoot.
She said, “I was specifically pulled aside and told that our male numbers in viewership skyrocketed when [my character] Peyton got her ass kicked by Derek.”
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“So what you’ll see, there’s a pattern on our show, where, either violence towards women or super sexualized situations, there’s gonna be an uptick in that because they were really hot to capture the male audience.”
Then Sophia Bush added “I know they weren’t trying to solicit basement bullies on the internet, but they saw that a lot of young men were drawn to a violent assault of women and they went, ‘We should do more of that.’ Not, ‘Uh-oh.”
“They were like, ‘Maybe we should do more! Maybe we should make the girls do Maxim and tell them they’ll get fired if they don’t!'”
Burton echoed Bush’s sentiments, saying that she felt “pressured” into doing the shoot. “I was worried about my job,” Burton said. “I was worried about how I would be perceived.”