Sophia Bush shared her thoughts on the lack of boundaries actors can receive, and her story was shocking.
While appearing on Stitcher Studios' Podcrushed, the One Tree Hill alum sat down with hosts Penn Badgley, Sophie Ansari, and Nava Kavelin. They discussed everything from their middle-school experiences to how they navigate their personal lives as high-profile actors.
When Nava asked about Sophia's take on actors receiving criticism for creating boundaries (a reference to Penn's recent comments about fewer sex scenes), the 40-year-old actor thoughtfully responded with a personal story highlighting the problem with how performers are treated.
"They treat you like an object or a commodity. They believe they're entitled to details about your life. They believe they are entitled to details about how you build your family. They believe they are entitled to criticize how you build your family," Sophia said. "They believe they're entitled to criticize whom you've dated and when you've dated and what you've ever said and if you've ever left a bar drunk."
"It is the most insane heaping pile of shit we throw onto people," Sophia added. "We do it because we also work in an industry that presents this false notion of wealth, privilege, beauty, and access. That's just not what most people experience. I think it's deeply toxic."
Next, Sophia recalled a shocking moment at a bar in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day years ago that "really crystalized" the idea that actors can be treated like objects or commodities.
First, she described the setting. "There was a guy at the table next to me and all my friends who walked right up to me and stuck his camera in my face to take a picture. [He] almost hit me in the face with his phone," Sophia said. "I was like, 'Please, don't do that. Hello, I'm a person. Please don't do that.'"
"He went back to his table and just kept videoing and taking pictures," she said. "After half an hour, I was like, 'Dude, come on. Please stop.' We're just hanging out. We're human beings. I'm not a zoo animal. I see you, I hear you...is my thought process. He keeps going, and he is getting rowdy. I can hear him swearing."
Finally, Sophia confronted the man, saying, "Hi, I'm a person. I'd like to shake your hand. My name is Sophia. You're making me really uncomfortable, man. I've asked you to stop. I'm a girl in a bar. You are a man I do not know. I don't wanna be videoed on your phone and my friends don't either. Can you please stop?"
"He was like, 'I don't have to stop. You're in public.' And I said, 'OK, but is there no world in which you can understand that you are making me feel like a piece of meat — like I'm not human?'" Sophia remembered challenging the man's actions. "And he goes, 'I watch your show, so I pay your fucking salary. You are a piece of meat to me.' And I just went, 'What?'"
Sophia described another woman at the man's table attempting to interject, saying, "You really have to stop," right before Sophia responded to him, "Do you understand the way you're talking to me?"
"He goes, 'You're just a TV prostitute,'" Sophia added. "Then one of the guys on our crew flipped out. It started to get physical between these guys. But, I mean, he meant it. And then he starts yelling at me that he's a lawyer, so he knows his rights. It was insane. This is part of what it is as a woman. I was like, 'OK. I'm gonna go home.'"
Unfortunately, the reality of events like this changed how Sophia operated in public. "I don't enjoy being in public anymore in such a greater percentage than I used to. Now I'd much rather be at home. I used to love to go out and be in the world," she said.
"That's obviously a wild example, but it's not the first time that I've experienced [this]," Sophia added. "It was terrible. Even thinking about it, I want to cry."
You can listen to the episode here or watch the full conversation below:
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It's a great conversation.