Post by Haley James Scott on Jul 5, 2006 13:06:30 GMT -5
A Trojan turned TV star
We all arrive at USC with big dreams about our future. Even as most of us spend the majority of our time at SC floundering around with persistent and nagging doubts about what we’re really going to do after graduation, we know it’s going to be something big – at least we hope. We’re going to light the world on fire, if only we can make it to class without a hangover. Sophia Bush was no different from the rest of us. Nearly four years ago this Pasadena native came to USC with big hopes and dreams as she embarked on her college life. She was admitted into the dancing and acting program, joined a sorority, and seemed to be on the same path as every other wide-eyed undergrad. That is, until her acting career took off and her dreams became her reality.
After minor roles in “National Lamthingy’s Van Wilder,” the FX drama “Nip/Tuck,” and even a brush with the Terminator 3, Sophia Bush has claimed her moment in the spotlight playing that high school girl you all knew and hated in the WB’s new hit series, “One Tree Hill.” Sophia, who would be a senior if she were still in school, is currently living in North Carolina where they are shooting “One Tree Hill.” From the Row to the Red Carpet, from school-time to primetime, Sophia is living the fantasy she had always dreamed of. And she’s not turning back.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
SNMag: In one year, you’ve gone from USC sorority girl to a primetime actress. Now that you’re in the position you’re in, do you think you’ll always act, or do you have any other career goals? I know that at one point you even wanted to be a veterinarian.
SB: Acting has been my passion from the minute I started. I was pretty young when I wanted to be a doctor, but when I started doing theater work as a freshman in high school, the first time I hit the stage I was like, If I can do this every day, life won’t get any better! There’s nothing that I love to do more than act and I feel really lucky to be in the position that I’m in, being able to do it as my job! If I ever do anything other than act, it will be in show business.
SNMag: You were very lucky early on in your acting career: you were cast to be in “Terminator 3” and then they said that you were too young for the role. What was that experience like?
SB: You know, I think it’s always hard for people to understand how I feel about that experience. It’s definitely a situation that can be touchy in that people were like, “Oh God – I can’t believe that happened! Are you okay?” But there was no way for me to be upset about the fact that, you know, at age 19 I just didn’t look 26! It was disappointing that it didn’t work out, but it wasn’t necessarily my fault or anything.
SNMag: Well it seems to have turned out all right. I mean, it wasn’t long after T3 that you were busy acting again. What’s the weirdest role you’ve had?
SB: Hands down, working on “Nip/Tuck” was the hardest experience of my life; but it was great because a major part of what I love about this job is getting to become somebody that I’m not, and getting to create a person that is real. Getting to dive into that is a really cool creative outlet, and “Nip/Tuck” was great because I had to push a lot of my own personal boundaries.
SNMag: What role did you play on that show? I know it was pretty scandalous!
SB: God! I played a really confused teenage girl that hadn’t exactly made the decision as to whether she wanted to date a boy, John Hensley, or her best girl friend, who was played by Kate Moss. Let’s just say she tried to experiment with both of them – at the same time!
SNMag: So who was better: Kate or John?
SB: Well, here’s the difference: Kate and I didn’t “kiss-kiss” and John and I had to really “kiss-kiss,” so it was totally different!
SNMag: So, Kate didn’t count!
SB: Although you know, everybody definitely called me the next day and was like, “We saw you making out with a chick!” I even got a phone call from all the guys over at PIKE [fraternity] after the scene aired. Like forty of them in a room, and I was like, Oh my God, my life’s over! But at least they were being supportive!
SNMag: Do you miss the guys at USC?
SB: Of course.
SNMag: What’s the best date a USC guy has ever taken you on?
SB: Oh God! That’s not fair because then he’s going to read this and be like, ‘Aww!’ But, in general, I think the most important recipe for a good date is just spending time with somebody and really connecting and feeling like the best version of yourself regardless of what you may be doing.
SNMag: It must have been hard to leave SC – and those fantastic dates that you’ve kept secret from us!
SB: Yeah it was really difficult, actually. I would have been a senior this year. I was pretty torn about it. You know, I love school and my education is really important to me beyond just the fact that I love the people at SC, and I love the environment. But all of my friends and family just looked at me when I got offered the part in “One Tree Hill” and were like, “Sophia you can finish college any time. You know this is what you want to do with your life!”
SNMag: Now that you’ve made the break from college life do you think you’ll ever come back?
SB: Yeah, I’m definitely going to finish. I don’t know when, but I will.
SNMag: So you left L.A. for Wilmington, North Carolina. Is there anything to do there?!
SB: It’s a pretty tiny place but we got lucky because UNCW is there. It’s a little tiny really nice East Coast town and we’re right around the bend from the beach. When it’s hot, it’s great! Wilmington’s got a lot of great places to go out, but truthfully it’s gotten to the point that, because it’s so small, none of us can go out without being recognized! It’s so bizarre and I still don’t understand it when we get followed around! We get a lot of support from the community which is pretty neat in that the city puts a lot of effort into our show and they give us a whole lot of scope as to places that we can shoot and things that we can do. It’s been a great working environment because being in a small town, you know it’s much more personal and it allows all of us in the cast to be very close, because we only have each other.
SNMag: Do you and the cast go away together on weekends?
SB: We don’t actually have time to go on weekend trips because we only get two days off. There are some nights when we wrap on at four o’clock in the morning, so even if the next day is a day off, all we want to do is sleep! Saturday’s our day to get errands done that we don’t have time to do during the week. Unlike a normal job, we don’t go nine to five.
SNMag: Well, if you did have time for weekend trips, I bet I can guess which cast member you’d choose to go away with!
SB: (laughs) I know what’s coming!
SNMag: There are rumors that you and co-star Chad (Michael Murray) have a little somethin’ somethin’ going on. Now I’m just curious about how the rest of the cast and crew feel about it.
SB: The cast and crew have all known for a while, but not since the beginning. We kept it to ourselves for about a month because we didn’t want anyone at work to be uncomfortable, and we wanted to have our own time to be ourselves. When we did tell everybody, they were like, “DUH!”
SNMag: It must be nice for everyone to be accepting of your relationship; but isn’t it weird to watch someone else make out with your boyfriend?
SB: Not at all. It’s in the job. It’s a completely professional situation and things can’t get romantic when you’ve got a director saying, “Okay, put your hands here and make sure that you know after two beats you tilt this way.” I mean it’s convenient for them when he and I have to shoot things because they’re like, “Sweet! They don’t need a whole lot of direction!”…And I can’t exactly complain about being paid to make out with my boyfriend!
SNMag: A year ago you were sitting at Kappa, looking at gossip magazines. Now the Kappa girls are looking at the same magazines and seeing you and Chad.
SB: It’s a little weird to me. It’s very odd that people care about my personal life. He and I did segments on MTV’s TRL New Year’s Eve party and when the editors cut to our little midnight kiss it sparked a lot of talk. People from Wilmington were excited! They were like, “We knew they were dating!” People care about my personal life, but really I’m dorky! I drink beer and go to football games, and you know, sit in my house in a t-shirt on the weekends and play with my dog! It’s a very bizarre thing to have people very concerned with your life, but I don’t mind it because all that says to me is that they care about the show, and I can’t ask for anything more than that.
SNMag: In the little free time that you actually have, what do you do?
SB: It’s really odd because I just moved and I’ve been spending all my free time on the weekends lately furnishing a house. I also got a dog and I take her out. And, as if I’m not acting enough like an adult, Chad actually organized the “One Tree Hill” football league and I’m like League Mom. On Fridays, 35 guys from the show play football and I’m there making sure that people are hydrated and nobody’s breaking anything. I also run around taking pictures and video for behind-the-scenes footage. It’s a really nice little life. Chad and I go to dinner and we go to the movies and we just kind of hang out. Everybody partied a lot when we first got down there, but after a while the novelty of that wears off, and when you’re dead tired from a long week of work, all you really want to do is sleep and be mellow.
SNMag: When you think back to last year and now how your life has changed, does it boggle your mind?
SB: Yeah, completely. It’s a very weird thing to know where you want to be in life and all of a sudden to actually have taken some real steps is a very strange feeling. I’ve really done something that I’m proud of.
SNMag: Thanks Sophia, we hope you come back soon!
Source: [Saturday Night]
We all arrive at USC with big dreams about our future. Even as most of us spend the majority of our time at SC floundering around with persistent and nagging doubts about what we’re really going to do after graduation, we know it’s going to be something big – at least we hope. We’re going to light the world on fire, if only we can make it to class without a hangover. Sophia Bush was no different from the rest of us. Nearly four years ago this Pasadena native came to USC with big hopes and dreams as she embarked on her college life. She was admitted into the dancing and acting program, joined a sorority, and seemed to be on the same path as every other wide-eyed undergrad. That is, until her acting career took off and her dreams became her reality.
After minor roles in “National Lamthingy’s Van Wilder,” the FX drama “Nip/Tuck,” and even a brush with the Terminator 3, Sophia Bush has claimed her moment in the spotlight playing that high school girl you all knew and hated in the WB’s new hit series, “One Tree Hill.” Sophia, who would be a senior if she were still in school, is currently living in North Carolina where they are shooting “One Tree Hill.” From the Row to the Red Carpet, from school-time to primetime, Sophia is living the fantasy she had always dreamed of. And she’s not turning back.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
SNMag: In one year, you’ve gone from USC sorority girl to a primetime actress. Now that you’re in the position you’re in, do you think you’ll always act, or do you have any other career goals? I know that at one point you even wanted to be a veterinarian.
SB: Acting has been my passion from the minute I started. I was pretty young when I wanted to be a doctor, but when I started doing theater work as a freshman in high school, the first time I hit the stage I was like, If I can do this every day, life won’t get any better! There’s nothing that I love to do more than act and I feel really lucky to be in the position that I’m in, being able to do it as my job! If I ever do anything other than act, it will be in show business.
SNMag: You were very lucky early on in your acting career: you were cast to be in “Terminator 3” and then they said that you were too young for the role. What was that experience like?
SB: You know, I think it’s always hard for people to understand how I feel about that experience. It’s definitely a situation that can be touchy in that people were like, “Oh God – I can’t believe that happened! Are you okay?” But there was no way for me to be upset about the fact that, you know, at age 19 I just didn’t look 26! It was disappointing that it didn’t work out, but it wasn’t necessarily my fault or anything.
SNMag: Well it seems to have turned out all right. I mean, it wasn’t long after T3 that you were busy acting again. What’s the weirdest role you’ve had?
SB: Hands down, working on “Nip/Tuck” was the hardest experience of my life; but it was great because a major part of what I love about this job is getting to become somebody that I’m not, and getting to create a person that is real. Getting to dive into that is a really cool creative outlet, and “Nip/Tuck” was great because I had to push a lot of my own personal boundaries.
SNMag: What role did you play on that show? I know it was pretty scandalous!
SB: God! I played a really confused teenage girl that hadn’t exactly made the decision as to whether she wanted to date a boy, John Hensley, or her best girl friend, who was played by Kate Moss. Let’s just say she tried to experiment with both of them – at the same time!
SNMag: So who was better: Kate or John?
SB: Well, here’s the difference: Kate and I didn’t “kiss-kiss” and John and I had to really “kiss-kiss,” so it was totally different!
SNMag: So, Kate didn’t count!
SB: Although you know, everybody definitely called me the next day and was like, “We saw you making out with a chick!” I even got a phone call from all the guys over at PIKE [fraternity] after the scene aired. Like forty of them in a room, and I was like, Oh my God, my life’s over! But at least they were being supportive!
SNMag: Do you miss the guys at USC?
SB: Of course.
SNMag: What’s the best date a USC guy has ever taken you on?
SB: Oh God! That’s not fair because then he’s going to read this and be like, ‘Aww!’ But, in general, I think the most important recipe for a good date is just spending time with somebody and really connecting and feeling like the best version of yourself regardless of what you may be doing.
SNMag: It must have been hard to leave SC – and those fantastic dates that you’ve kept secret from us!
SB: Yeah it was really difficult, actually. I would have been a senior this year. I was pretty torn about it. You know, I love school and my education is really important to me beyond just the fact that I love the people at SC, and I love the environment. But all of my friends and family just looked at me when I got offered the part in “One Tree Hill” and were like, “Sophia you can finish college any time. You know this is what you want to do with your life!”
SNMag: Now that you’ve made the break from college life do you think you’ll ever come back?
SB: Yeah, I’m definitely going to finish. I don’t know when, but I will.
SNMag: So you left L.A. for Wilmington, North Carolina. Is there anything to do there?!
SB: It’s a pretty tiny place but we got lucky because UNCW is there. It’s a little tiny really nice East Coast town and we’re right around the bend from the beach. When it’s hot, it’s great! Wilmington’s got a lot of great places to go out, but truthfully it’s gotten to the point that, because it’s so small, none of us can go out without being recognized! It’s so bizarre and I still don’t understand it when we get followed around! We get a lot of support from the community which is pretty neat in that the city puts a lot of effort into our show and they give us a whole lot of scope as to places that we can shoot and things that we can do. It’s been a great working environment because being in a small town, you know it’s much more personal and it allows all of us in the cast to be very close, because we only have each other.
SNMag: Do you and the cast go away together on weekends?
SB: We don’t actually have time to go on weekend trips because we only get two days off. There are some nights when we wrap on at four o’clock in the morning, so even if the next day is a day off, all we want to do is sleep! Saturday’s our day to get errands done that we don’t have time to do during the week. Unlike a normal job, we don’t go nine to five.
SNMag: Well, if you did have time for weekend trips, I bet I can guess which cast member you’d choose to go away with!
SB: (laughs) I know what’s coming!
SNMag: There are rumors that you and co-star Chad (Michael Murray) have a little somethin’ somethin’ going on. Now I’m just curious about how the rest of the cast and crew feel about it.
SB: The cast and crew have all known for a while, but not since the beginning. We kept it to ourselves for about a month because we didn’t want anyone at work to be uncomfortable, and we wanted to have our own time to be ourselves. When we did tell everybody, they were like, “DUH!”
SNMag: It must be nice for everyone to be accepting of your relationship; but isn’t it weird to watch someone else make out with your boyfriend?
SB: Not at all. It’s in the job. It’s a completely professional situation and things can’t get romantic when you’ve got a director saying, “Okay, put your hands here and make sure that you know after two beats you tilt this way.” I mean it’s convenient for them when he and I have to shoot things because they’re like, “Sweet! They don’t need a whole lot of direction!”…And I can’t exactly complain about being paid to make out with my boyfriend!
SNMag: A year ago you were sitting at Kappa, looking at gossip magazines. Now the Kappa girls are looking at the same magazines and seeing you and Chad.
SB: It’s a little weird to me. It’s very odd that people care about my personal life. He and I did segments on MTV’s TRL New Year’s Eve party and when the editors cut to our little midnight kiss it sparked a lot of talk. People from Wilmington were excited! They were like, “We knew they were dating!” People care about my personal life, but really I’m dorky! I drink beer and go to football games, and you know, sit in my house in a t-shirt on the weekends and play with my dog! It’s a very bizarre thing to have people very concerned with your life, but I don’t mind it because all that says to me is that they care about the show, and I can’t ask for anything more than that.
SNMag: In the little free time that you actually have, what do you do?
SB: It’s really odd because I just moved and I’ve been spending all my free time on the weekends lately furnishing a house. I also got a dog and I take her out. And, as if I’m not acting enough like an adult, Chad actually organized the “One Tree Hill” football league and I’m like League Mom. On Fridays, 35 guys from the show play football and I’m there making sure that people are hydrated and nobody’s breaking anything. I also run around taking pictures and video for behind-the-scenes footage. It’s a really nice little life. Chad and I go to dinner and we go to the movies and we just kind of hang out. Everybody partied a lot when we first got down there, but after a while the novelty of that wears off, and when you’re dead tired from a long week of work, all you really want to do is sleep and be mellow.
SNMag: When you think back to last year and now how your life has changed, does it boggle your mind?
SB: Yeah, completely. It’s a very weird thing to know where you want to be in life and all of a sudden to actually have taken some real steps is a very strange feeling. I’ve really done something that I’m proud of.
SNMag: Thanks Sophia, we hope you come back soon!
Source: [Saturday Night]
