In the romantic comedy John Tucker Must Die, actress Sophia Bush plays Beth,
John Tucker’s retro hippy, save Mother Earth, tree hugging girlfriend who is a
throwback to the “free love” movement. Sophia continues her role as Brooke on
“One Tree Hill” but, on breaks from her TV show, the brunette actress has
appeared in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Supercross: The Movie and we recently
chatted with her about her horror thriller Stay Alive. Sophia is now working on
the remake of the thriller The Hitcher.
The chatty actress, all dressed up in a classy black Calvin Klein shirtwaist
dress and black espadrilles for our Beverly Hills interview, told us about her
character, how she got involved in the movie and fun with fellow actresses on
set who have become good friends. All learned valuable lessons about cliques and
friendship and Sophia got involved in saving the environment after playing Beth
in the film.
TeenHollywood: How were you approached for John Tucker Must Die?
Sophia: Initially when my series started, they realized that the characters
that had been written in for the pilot were all incredibly depressing…you know
everybody was in these like really rough situations, which was the drama
obviously for the start of the show but they wanted sort of a pot-stirrer, they
wanted somebody who would be the comedic relief. I guess through some of the
funnier things that have happened on the series, the awareness was up that
apparently, I’m sort of funny…and I went in and met with Betty [Director Betty
Thomas] and read and we just had so much fun—and she’s the funniest person on
the planet!
TeenHollywood: Did you love the script for “John Tucker”?
Sophia: Yes. From the minute I read the script, it was witty and smart and
not one of your typical carbon-copy teen comedies. There was something really
new about this and really fresh. Look at Clueless or you look at Mean Girls.
This is one of ‘those’ comedies that, just has the edge and the wit and doesn’t
patronize a young audience—it’s so refreshing! So I knew that I wanted to do the
movie.
TeenHollywood: You girls built such diverse and interesting female
characters.
Sophia: Well, you’ve got Ashanti who is our uber-cheerleader, you know, most
popular girl in school. Arielle [Kebbel] is the totally overachieving dedicated
bookworm. And in comes my character, who is the screaming activist, who
meditates during P.E. and like tries to calm everybody down but the minute she’s
upset she’s a total lunatic and she's screaming at everyone.
TeenHollywood: Is there kind of a lesson in the film for the girls as
well as the guys?
Sophia: Beth is learning the lesson as a girl in high school that you can’t
rely on being sexy to get you the guy or to get you your friends or to get you
anything that you want. And it’s a nice thing to figure out because it’s skin
deep and it’s like we’re all aging, we’re all getting older, it’s not going to
last forever. I think it’s a valuable thing that we don’t shove down anybody’s
throat but your friends are what matter. It’s the people that you get along with
and that was the most valuable thing for me as I grew up, was learning to put my
relationships in my life as my first and foremost priority. There’s some hurt
and there’s some difficulty achieving that—and I think that’s what makes it
real.
TeenHollywood: Can you identify with Beth at all, the animal activism or
anything?
Sophia: Yeah. I knew that I was getting a little ‘agro’ with how
environmentally conscious I’m becoming, because it’s all that I’ve talked about
with anybody for weeks. And I’m buying a hybrid [car] and I’m leaving the
airport and this man getting in his car service Excursion and I’m like, ‘tree
Killer!’ And I’m sitting there like, ‘ok, Sophia, you need to calm down. You
need to calm down.’ And it’s getting to the point that, I’ve realized that as
much as I wish I could be you know championing charities and being incredibly
involved politically, my work schedule doesn’t allow for me to travel around and
do the things in the world that I want to do right now.
TeenHollywood: But, maybe by example…..?
Sophia: Yeah. What I can do – is buy a hybrid car, which I just did, and
what I can do is change all my light bulbs to be energy efficient, and make my
parents do it, and make my friends do it, and talk to my publicist about it and
now she’s got the guy who will come in and do your house. She’s got him coming
in to change over the office…it’s like, we can do this! These are things that
everybody can do and your work schedule won’t change, and your life won’t
change.
TeenHollywood: You sound really passionate about the environment.
Sophia: Well, when you turn on the Discovery Channel and you watch
Antarctica start melting, how can you not take a step? What I really identified
with, with Beth, was being passionate about doing what you can. If each of us in
this room changed over all of our light bulbs, seven families at the poverty
line won’t have to because we’re making up for it. You know it’s one of those
things that I just think we’ve gotten to a point where we have to be
responsible, and it’s unacceptable now not to do something. So, see look I’m
getting really heated about this…that’s the thing that I really identify with as
far as Beth goes.
TeenHollywood: But did Beth just talk the talk or did she walk the walk
too?
Sophia: Well, what didn’t make it in the movie is the fact that she’s young
enough and missing certain points of life experience at 17 years old. We did
have a scene where we all arrive at Brittany’s house where we’re all pulling up
in our different cars that are very explanatory of our personality—and here I am
this major vegan eco-activist but I drive an Escalade! And I don’t even get it,
it’s like it doesn’t even cross my mind, it’s like, ‘well I bought an SUV so
that I could hall trees to plant.’ But, you’re an idiot. You’re polluting the
air. But those were the things that were quite amusing. There are things in her
that are hypocritical that she doesn’t even realize yet.
TeenHollywood: How was the environment on your set?
Sophia: It was amazing. And I’m not going to lie. I left a movie right
before I went up to shoot "John Tucker". I had been in New Orleans for the
entire first half of the summer with my best guy friends [Stay Alive]. And it
was me and the dudes. We were having so much fun. And I was like, ‘I’m going to
Canada and I’m going to be with all girls. And girls are catty and awful and
this is going to be miserable experience. I’m terrified of what I’m walking
into.’ And, we clicked so fast. I could sense the sort of communal sigh of
relief.
TeenHollywood: So it was a mutual admiration sorority from the beginning?
Sophia: The first time we all sat down it was like, ‘yeah, everybody here is
so cool!’ Like nobody is a diva, nobody is difficult, we had the best time. And
these girls I love to bits and pieces. I couldn’t get through a month without
talking to them if I tried. We all had a lot going last summer and we all pulled
each other through a lot. And I knew that there was something to it when, at
4am, if one of us was having a problem we could call the other and we’d all end
up sleeping in each other’s beds all the time. It was sleep-away camp. It was
slumber party time.
TeenHollywood: Any special memories?
Sophia: There was a night nearing the end of the shoot when we were getting
everything together for wrap and we were all writing our notes out to people…we
were in Brittany [Snow’s] room. And Brittany and I were on the couch and we’d
ordered food and we’re chowing down and Arielle’s over in the armchair and we’re
all writing and she’s putting together a package, and Ashanti’s over sitting at
the desk and she’s got her headphones on and she’s working on her new song. And
we’re jamming and we’re at that point where we weren’t even talking, we just
wanted to be together. And I was like this is what I have with my best
girlfriends and this is amazing. And it could have gone in so many other
directions. So I was really, really thankful for that. And we had not only great
personal connections, but we had great chemistry when the cameras were rolling,
and it really allowed us to elevate everything that we hoped to do with the
movie so I think we were very lucky for that.
TeenHollywood: And now that the work is over do you still see each other?
Sophia: Yeah, absolutely, and it was just so much fun because we went to a
screening at Fox. Ashanti was working so she couldn’t come and we were obviously
really bummed. But, it was myself and Brittany and Arielle and Penn [Badgley].
And we’re sitting there and it’s just the four of us and the security guard who
let us in is cracking up and we’re listening to him laugh, and he’s older and
loud and so funny and we’re loving that he’s laughing. And we are in our seats
with our feet up you know chowing-down, on the Fox lot like ‘this is so cool!’
And we’re laughing and were losing our minds and we’re seeing things that we had
forgotten happened on set.
TeenHollywood: Oooo, tell us what happened on set.
Sophia: You know like there’s a scene where we’re all throwing popcorn from
the rafters at Jesse. And we’re throwing Whopper burgers at him and we hit him
in the face with a Whopper so hard. He had like a welt on the side of his face.
So we see it—we see it make the shot and we like see his head bounce because we
hit him right here and his ear swelled up and we’re like ‘oh my god!’ and we’re
laughing and screaming and we’re having so much fun. And I was like, ‘this
movie’s really funny, ok.’ I’m really excited about this…I’m proud of this. It’s
really nice to see something come out the way that you hoped it would. And it’s
smart and it’s fun and I think people will enjoy it because we certainly did.
The publicist ends interview and as Sophia is getting up she jokes…
Sophia: It’s so odd, it’s like we get cookin’ and then they take me away.
TeenHollywood: It’s been fun though!