Sophia Bush revealed on a new episode of Penn Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast (via IndieWire) that an aggressive fan once berated her and called her a “TV prostitute” when she confronted him for filming her without consent. Bush has been acting for over two decades and is best known for roles in “One Tree Hill” and “Chicago P.D.”
“I had a beer and there was a guy at the table next to me and all my friends, who walked right up to me and stuck his camera right in my face to take a picture, almost hit me right in the face, with his phone,” Bush said. “He keeps going and he’s getting rowdy and I can hear him swearing.”
Bush continued, “I say, ‘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?’”
According to Bush, the fan got aggressive with her and said, “I don’t have to stop. You’re in public.” She responded, “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?”
“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?’ [He goes], ‘You’re just a TV prostitute,’” Bush said. “One of the guys on our crew like flipped out and it started to get physical between these guys.”
“It’s very strange because in one sentence people will say, ‘Well you signed up for this’ and the other sentence they’ll say, ‘We’re entitled to this,’” Bush added. “I don’t think anyone is entitled to anything.”
Bush called the experience “insane,” and it’s just one of many reasons the actor does not “enjoy being in public anymore.”
“Now I’d much rather be at home,” Bush said. “I used to love to go out and be in the world, so I think that’s obviously a wild example, but it’s not the first time that I’ve experienced that.”
Bush recently headlined ABC’s medical drama “Good Sam,” but the 2022 series was canceled after only one season. Listen to Bush’s full “Podcrushed” podcast interview here.