‘Chicago P.D.’ Alum Sophia Bush Opens up About Choice to Call out ‘Abusive Behavior’ on Sets

Sophia Bush posted a powerful message about “abusive behavior” on set in a new #MeToo-themed Instagram post on Friday.

Bush, a Hollywood veteran who left the cast of Chicago P.D. last year, has been open with fans about her history of abusive behavior in the industry. She has also been aligned with the Me Too movement from its early days. On Friday, the 36-year-old actress admitted that it is not always easy to call out abuse, but that will not stop her.

“I will always tell, and have always told, the truth. Even when my voice shakes,” she wrote.

Bush’s caption accompanied a short poem in vintage typeface, as well as screen shots of some of her posts about abuse in the work place. Bush pulled these out as “receipts” as she condemned tabloid journalists. She was furious to see her name back in the headlines without reference to the advocacy she has been continually doing for a year now.

“You asking ‘why now’ simply reveals to me that you haven’t been paying attention,” she wrote. “‘Journalists’ who distort the words of women to produce clickbait, who minimize their story by segmenting it and reducing it? Do better.”

Bush was most likely referring to her interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast last Monday, and the subsequent coverage of her remarks. In a few measured and unspecific statements, she hinted that she had left Chicago P.D. following “a consistent onslaught barrage of abusive behavior.”

“You start to lose your way when someone assaults you in a room full of people and everyone literally looks away, looks at the floor, looks at the ceiling, and you’re the one woman in the room and every man who’s twice your size doesn’t do something you go, ‘Oh that wasn’t worth defending? I’m not worth defending?’” she said.

Bush was among the 18 women from the cast and crew of One Tree Hill who came forward in November of 2017 to accuse show creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment. Shepard hinted that this was not the only set where she suffered abuse however, saying that her career had “a bit of a pattern.”

“Our experience on One Tree Hill was unpleasant, but our boss who was a bad dude lived in L.A.,” Bush said. However, she added that it “wasn’t the same” as her more recent experiences of workplace harassment.

Whatever the case, for now, Bush is keeping her story to herself. She previously spoke about her Chicago P.D. exit on an episode of the UnStyled podcast last December, saying that she quit the show “because I wanted to. End of story.”

“I don’t have to give everyone the specific breakdown of exactly why I left until I’m ready to do that,” she added. “But, the overarching theme for me was that I landed my dream job. I landed this job that, since I was 20 years old and trying to become an actor, I said I wanted. And aspects of it, don’t get me wrong, were wonderful. But … I knew by the end of the second season I couldn’t do that job anymore.”