In just a few years, the gorgeous Sophia Bush has gone from a Hollywood unknown to one of tinsel town’s biggest It girls. She already has a long-running television show under her belt with One Tree Hill, which survived the UPN-WB merger and will be back on The CW in the fall. What’s more, though, is the handful of increasingly high-profile movies she’s been a part of, from her quiet debut in Van Wilder to this summer’s John Tucker Must Die, she plays a promiscuous high school girl who has fallen for the lying two-timer of the title. “I think we’ve all known a John Tucker at one point or another,” she says.
 “I think we’ve all in one way or another been through that scenario. When you sort of have to come to terms with the fact that someone you’ve invested yourself in isn’t what [he’s] seemed to you.”

She also recognizes the hypocrisy that occurs when such situations happen.
“There tends to be the habit of wanting to blame the girl…Because I see a lot of girls stay in relationships when they’re not being treated as well as they should be, because it’s secure, and it’s safe, and it’s scary to walk away from it. That’s the value of an experience of a John Tucker, for any female, learning what she’s worth.”

Perhaps it was her years in the all-girl high school she attended or the sorority at USC, but Bush seems to always have a strong stake in her female friends rather than any passing love interest.
“The most important thing you have is your relationship with your friends. And it doesn’t need to be defined by a clique or defined by your stereotype, it needs to be defined by girls that you love and that you laugh with, and that you get along with. And those are the people that are going to be in your life forever.” Her next remark is more pointed: “Significant others come and go, and your girlfriends are going to be the ones to get you through it.”

Is that an allusion to her recent breakup with Murray? Bush makes sure to keep her private life to herself as much as possible, but that doesn’t stop her from subtly referencing her own experience. Take her thoughts about the character she plays on One Tree Hill, Brooke Davis.
“What I love about it is that she’s learning lessons on the show that I had to learn, when I was at that age, or in the last few years. Really starting to realize that you’ve got to make sure that the people you’re giving your heart to are treating it with the respect it deserves,” she says. “And that’s a really valuable life lesson, and that’s the reason that I love playing her.”

For now Bush seems more than happy to hang out with the girls, like she’s used to. She’s happy to report a good experience on the John Tucker set.
“I had nerves in the beginning going up to Canada [to shoot], because I knew it was going to be a lot of estrogen in one room. And a lot of girls are catty in this business. It’s definitely something I was afraid of. And there was such a collective sigh of relief in that first week of rehearsals, because we all clicked. We all realized, okay, these are cool chicks. Nobody here is a diva…I have such girl-crushes on these girls.”
(Don’t worry, though, fellas, you still have a chance. She also mentions that “the sexiest thing in the world to me is an education” – so start hitting those books.)

Because she grew up nearby, Bush was prepared for the skin-deep celebrity culture of L.A. She’s smart enough to see through it, but also quick to defend her hometown.
 “What I find really amusing is that the people that are superficial in this town are not native to L.A. They’re the people who’ve moved here to try to get in the limelight. They’re the people who’ve moved here because they’re more concerned with being famous or being socialites than they are with actually doing anything positive.”

In fact, perhaps thanks to her mind being on John Tucker Must Die, she finds a striking comparison.
 “You know what, I think the insecurity that underlies a lot of what goes on in Hollywood, all of it is really reminiscent of high school,” she reasons. “You know, when you walk into one of those big high school house parties, and everybody’s checking everybody out. It’s the same thing. You walk into one of those parties, and it’s a bunch of people who don’t actually know each other getting photographed together because they all do the same thing. And everybody’s looking everybody up and down. And it’s so shallow in those moments.”

She knows that the best way to avoid those pratfalls of success is to keep busy. Next up, according to reports, is a remake of the cult classic The Hitcher, in which Bush will play the lead role of a girl terrorized by a nightmare of a hitch-hiker, played by Sean Bean. That’s scheduled to hit in 2007, and now, on the eve of John Tucker hitting the nation, Bush is relaxing in the spotlight and happy about the good buzz the movie is getting.
 “You hope that the buzz is going to turn into something, because you’re proud of it,” she says. “What I love is that we’ve made a really smart, witty, fun comedy, and we’re not, you know, doing the neat little, you know, wrap up the message in a bow and pass it to the audience. There’s a lot of things going on all at once in the movie.”
And One Tree Hill is still going strong, too.
 “We’re on; we’re going to be on Wednesday nights after American’s Next Top Model, so that’s exciting. It’s a great segue show, and I think something where the demographics will match up really well. It’s a pleasure to be one of the shows that made the cut, because I know that there was a lot of great material that didn’t get to stay on the air because there just wasn’t the space.”

But underneath all of the glamour and beauty and talent is something as endearing as it is shocking: a normal person.
“I wasn’t clubbing when I was fifteen. I was having sleepovers with my friends,” she says. “I cherished my childhood. I would never want to take back, you know, going to summer camp, and my first kiss, and my first love…I didn’t have a cell phone when I was ten. And I see ten year olds with cell phones. I see girls in high school with Prada bags, and I’m like, are you kidding? And it’s become the norm. It scares me.”

Interview By: Michael Dance
TheCinemaSource.com