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Sophia Bush is sharing more about her high profile exit from NBC’s Chicago P.D., where she portrayed the role of Erin Lindsay. She starred for four seasons, and left in 2017.
In her book, “And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress,” she wrote about being sent to New York City to promote the book.
About this time, she wrote, “An inappropriate comment. A raised voice. A hair pull. A held breath. A clenched jaw. A clenched fist. Fist connecting with flesh. And then, worse. Much worse. Things done when there were fewer people in the room, but the rooms were never empty. Averted eyes, silenced protests, and whispers when something went wrong. Knowing our set was the one talked about on all the others. Bracing for conflict, for screaming, for humiliation when something, anything, triggered outsized rage.”
1She looked back on her time working on One Tree Hill, and said she used that experience to put the show above her feelings.
Sophia continued, “At the time, nobody knew. Not really. Not enough. That’s what I told myself, anyway. I’ve been told I am alarmingly high functioning, but up until then, I had just called it ‘being a professional.’ I’d learned it on my first show: Put the job, the family, above all else, and never let a guy who can’t control himself ding your work ethic or your integrity. You can take it. I’d had a few years of lovely sets in between, but a decade of training never leaves you — and in this heightened version of having my ability to perform tested? I snapped right back into that rhythm.”
Still, she started exhibiting physical signs of stress such as hives, and weight issues. She ultimately decided to leave the show, and gave them notice in the summer of 2016.
She wrote that she was eventually contacted by a journalist who had heard she was leaving the show due to “an assault by one of her costars.” The piece never ended up running with the allegations leveled by another co-star.
By the way, Sophia never named this co-star but revealed she allegedly received a text from “him.”
“My stomach dropped when I saw his name on my lock screen. I wondered what he could possibly want to say to me. I opened it and saw the message only contained the link to the clean-up piece. No other words. As if my boogeyman on the other end was saying, ‘Gotcha, you ******* little *****,’ as he’d called me more than once at work. The article contained an assertion that he was remorseful and he’d apologized to everyone he’d hurt. Not to me, I thought. Not ever. Not that it mattered. I was done holding my breath.” By the way, in 2017, a report was published suggesting Sophia exited the series due to one male co-star.
Variety published an apology from Jason Beghe, a Chicago P.D. star, in 2017. Sophia did not name anyone in her book.
“I am deeply sorry for my behavior, which I know has been hurtful to my friends and colleagues,” he said at the time. “I have struggled with anger issues for some time, and over the past year, I have been working with a coach to help me learn how to mitigate my temper. It’s an ongoing process, and it has been a humbling one. It is a source of great pride for me to be part of Chicago P.D.‘s incredible cast and crew. I have personally apologized to anyone who I have upset, and I am committed to doing what is necessary to make up any damage that I may have caused.”
You can grab Sophia‘s book, “And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress,” out now.
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