Beat around bush
Sophia Bush is sick of being a teen bombshell.


The 24-year-old, who for four years has played cheerleading high-school vixen Brooke Davis on teen TV show One Tree Hill, says she wants to be taken seriously.

``I want people to know that I'm not who I play on TV -- there's a lot more going on,'' she says, exasperated.

``People are generally astounded that I'm intelligent or educated or socially conscious or grounded, which is a nice change for me because I'm not a ditzy cheerleader -- I wasn't even a cheerleader in high school -- I just play one on television.''

A new starring role opposite Sean Bean in a remake of 1986 thriller The Hitcher -- which starred Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh -- looks set to show the world just what the stunning brunette is capable of.

The John Tucker Must Die star plays university student Grace Andrews, whose road trip with her boyfriend, played by Zachary Knighton, becomes a nightmare after they are hunted and tormented by a hitch-hiking psychopath and implicated in a horrific cross-country slaying.

Though sounding like typical C-grade teen slasher fare, the impressive performances, thrill-packed stunts and stunning cinematography of the New Mexico backdrop elevate the film from most offerings in the genre -- something that sealed the deal for Bush.

``For me as an actor there was a real attraction to this because there was such an elemental development of what I was going to get to do emotionally and the journey I was going to get to portray,'' she says.

``And I felt it would show people a side of me that maybe they don't know is there.''

The harrowing, action-packed role also saw Bush, who filmed during her hiatus from the TV series, do almost all of her own stunts.

``Part of the reason I wanted to take it is because it was the fulfilment of my inner tomboy stunt-junkie,'' she says.

``I'm a girlie-girl and I love clothes and romance and that whole feminine side, but I also love being in the garage and looking at cars and hanging out with the boys and watching football and eating greasy food -- that's always been me.

``I get to run around and blow things up and carry guns and do high-speed chases at 70 miles an hour hanging out of windows and thrown down cliffs.

``I took incredible beatings every day on this movie from Sean -- it was incredibly draining and I was really bruised and battered.''

Bush hit the headlines late in 2005 when she and then husband Chad Michael Murray, her co-star on One Tree Hill, announced they were separating only five months after tying the knot in a lavish beachside ceremony -- with reports of infidelity on his part.

She says the experience of having a relationship disintegrate in the spotlight has made her cautious about talking publicly about her love life.

But she tentatively says she has recently returned from a romantic trip to Paris with her

``significant other'' -- reportedly 22-year-old American actor Jon Foster, who he met when they starred together in horror thriller Stay Alive in 2005.

``All I'm really willing to give up about that -- because it's so private and it's the thing I cherish most in the world -- is that I am really fortunate to have a relationship with my best friend, with the most exceptional person I know,'' Bush says.

``It (talking about relationships) is one of those things that you learn the hard way that once people are let in in, they feel it's their property.

``And for me, I'm not a zoo animal -- I'm not anybody's personal property and I don't want that (the relationship) becoming someone else's speculation prize.''

Herald Sun (news.com.au)
March 15th 2007