A teen drama about a group of young men and women growing up in North Carolina, One Tree Hill (OTH) aired from 2003 to 2012. Mark Schwahn created the series and was the showrunner for the entirety.
“Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be.”
The continued, “Many of us were spoken to in ways that ran the spectrum from deeply upsetting, to traumatising, to downright illegal. A few of us were even put in positions where we felt physically unsafe.”
In her Twitter comments, Wauchope described being subjected to frequent and unwanted touching by Schwahn, who she did not identify by name; seeing Schwahn show naked photos of an actress that he was having a sexual relationship with to staffers without the actress’ knowledge; and Schwahn calling Wauchope’s writing partner into his office to try to talk her out of getting married and into dating him.
In response to the letter, several male co-stars including James Lafferty and Lee Norris came forward to give the actresses their backing.
Lafferty, who played Nathan Scott, tweeted, “I applaud every woman on OTH, every woman on earth, who stands up to a system that has failed them in the past and in this moment. I stand with them.”
Bush shared a message from Norris, who played Marvin ‘Mouth’ McFadden, thanking him for his words, “Much love to our brother bear Lee Norris, who has always been supportive. He’s one of the good ones too.”
Norris noted that the ladies of the show are “more than capable of speaking for themselves” and added, “These are not my stories to tell, but I wanted to voice my complete support of them.”
