Hilarie Burton talked about her distressing encounter on the set of “One Tree Hill.” In the recent episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast, Burton, along with Bethany Joy Lenz and Sophia Bush, discusses “It Gets Worse at Night,” the fourth season episode where the Tree Hill group ventures to Honey Grove to save Mouth (Lee Norris) from prison.
Hilarie, one of the eighteen women who accused “One Tree Hill” creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment, recounted the anguish she experienced while shooting this episode of the series.
“The flight back from that is when he assaulted me. He assaulted me again in the car on the drive from Raleigh to Wilmington, He went straight to set and he told Danneel [Ackles] that he and I made out the whole time, and it was fun, and he was trying to make her jealous. So, she confronted me about it and was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Hilarie alleged. “So, then we had to go on this trip with him. And this was really, like, the last three months where my blood was boiling. I didn’t know how to process it anymore and you can see it in the episode. You can see that I’m not there… I look like shit, I’m not connecting in anyway.”
Lenz questioned Burton’s decision to not report Schwahn at the time. “Oh, I did. I told all sorts of people. Honey, I told everybody,” Burton responded. “Chad [Michael Murray] walked up and goes, ‘What are you doing?’ He said that to our boss in the bar. He watched our boss grab me in front of a lot of people, and you know, Chad didn’t have anything to lose because he knew our boss hated him anyway. A lot of people had a lot to lose, so you don’t speak up when you have a lot to lose. But [our boss] felt so comfortable that that was not something that he had a problem with. [He thought], ‘I can do whatever I want to her in public with her boyfriend standing there.’”
Sophia Bush remarked that Chad Michael Murray was “protected” from any repercussions due to his position at the top of the call sheet. “He had the most power, so he could come up and shove our boss off you and get in a fight. And I’m glad that he did. I want everybody to follow that lead,” she added. “Thank God, Hilarie, that you had that moment with Chad, who was already so at odds with our boss.”
Since being accused by the cast of “One Tree Hill” in 2017, Mark Schwahn has not given a response to the allegations.