Sophia Bush Reveals the Alleged Abuse That Led to Her Exit from Chicago P.D. After Four Seasons.
Sophia Bush is discussing a difficult period in her professional life. Bush, who portrayed Detective Erin Lindsay on the NBC police procedural drama for four seasons, said in her new memoir And I Will Tell You Mine that she departed the show due to persistent harassment from one of her coworkers, nearly ten years after her surprise departure from Chicago P.D. in 2017.
“An inappropriate comment. A raised voice. A hair pull,” she penned the book. “A held breath. A clenched jaw. A clenched fist. Fist connecting with flesh. And then, worse. Much worse.”
Bush claims that although the claimed abuse started during a press run in New York City prior to the show's launch, it soon became apparent that the behavior was turning into a concerning new normal.
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“Things done when there were fewer people in the room, but the rooms were never empty. Averted eyes, silenced protests, and whispers when something went wrong,” she added. “Knowing our set was the one talked about on all the others. Bracing for conflict, for screaming, for humiliation when something, anything, triggered outsized rage.”
During her four seasons on the show, Bush, 44, said she tried to put the series' first and overlook the way she was treated. She learned that approach while filming One Tree Hill. In 2017, Bush was among several women who accused the show's creator, Mark Schwahn, of sexual harassment. He made no public statement but was fired from his role on The Royals that year.
“At the time, nobody knew. Not really. Not enough. That’s what I told myself, anyway. I’ve been told I am alarmingly high functioning, but up until then, I had just called it ‘being a professional,’” she penned. “I’d learned it on my first show: Put the job, the family, above all else, and never let a guy who can’t control himself ding your work ethic or your integrity. You can take it.”
“I’d had a few years of lovely sets in between, but a decade of training never leaves you,” she went on, “and in this heightened version of having my ability to perform tested? I snapped right back into that rhythm.”
However, following the onset of physical signs of stress, such as rashes, weight swings, and hair loss, Bush chose to leave the show in the summer of 2016. In her words, “I was done holding my breath.”
News organizations have contacted an NBC spokesperson for comment, but they have not yet received a response.
