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Sophia Bush is opening up about the alleged abuse she experienced on a set that she said felt like going to "war."
Bush appeared as a guest on the June 3 episode of the Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky podcast and detailed her past experience working in a toxic work environment following the 2012 conclusion of her show One Tree Hill that caused her "physical hell," per People. Though she didn't name the television series, the outlet noted that Bush spent multiple seasons working on Chicago P.D. between 2014 and 2017.
"When I look back at it, 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 negativity reportedly took a physical toll on the John Tucker Must Die actress as she recalled having not just a "spontaneous illness" that left her "covered in hives" but also experiencing hair loss and weight fluctuation. It was a far cry from what she was used to in her life.
"As an extrovert who loves people, 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, especially in the work environment."
Bush alleged that she was met with "every kind" of abuse with "someone old enough to be [her] father" and described some of the "exhausting" ways she had to learn how to navigate that to protect herself.
"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," she said. "It was just exhausting."
Bush left Chicago P.D. in April 2017, explaining to Refinery 29 later that year that she didn't realize how much she had been "drowning" and "miserable" at the time, adding, "I had to respect myself in a situation where I didn't feel respected."