Bethany Joy Lenz Shares Exec’s Graphic Description ofOne Tree Hillin New Memoir: 'This Show Is About F---ing and Sucking'

Mar. 15, 2025

Bethany Joy Lenz in ‘One Tree Hill’ in 2003 and the cover of her 2024 memoir, ‘Dinner for Vampires’.Photo:RGR Collection/Alamy

RGR Collection/Alamy

WhileOne Tree Hillhad its share of romantic entanglements and sexy moments, according to actressBethany Joy Lenz, one network executive described the early-2000s teen drama in shockingly graphic terms.

“He said, ‘You tell her this show is about f—ing and sucking, and if she’s gonna have a problem with that, she shouldn’t come in tomorrow,’ ” Lenz recalls her manager telling her.

Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray, Hilarie Burton, James Lafferty and Bethany Joy Lenz on ‘One Tree Hill’ in 2003.WARNER BROS. TELEVISION/ALAMY

WARNER BROS. TELEVISION/ALAMY

According to Lenz, the unnamed executive had been in charge of theAmanda BynessitcomWhat I Like About You. Lenz writes that a year prior to this phone call, she had been invited to test for the sitcom, but had turned it down. “The show was marketed toward tween girls, and I was concerned that the big-sister role I was testing for — which eventually went to the lovelyJennie Garth— was a woman living with her boyfriend,” Lenz, who was raised evangelical Christian, writes. “I didn’t want to normalize ‘living in sin’ for young girls.”

“I believed it was imperative that stories portray relatable darkness and struggle because, to me, this is where redemption can come alive,” she writes. “So, grit didn’t scare me, and theOne Tree Hillpilot had grit.”

Bethany Joy Lenz’s memoir ‘Dinner for Vampires’.

Lenz adds that she didn’t feel “at risk of being objectified” playing Haley, whom she describes as “the most wholesome” character on the show, and she had faith thatOne Tree Hillwould “send meaningful, uplifting messages” to its audience.

Lenz, of course, landed the role of Haley. But despite the executive’s graphic warning, she writes that she assumed that the “f—ing and sucking” would not involve her more modest character. As a result, she says she frequently pushed back when asked to appear on the show in a bra, and was consequently labeled as “difficult.”

“When I stood my ground as a matter of religious modesty, my manger would get a call,” she writes. “ ‘She’s being difficult again. We told you what this show was about!’ ”

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WithOne Tree Hillfilming in Wilmington, North Carolina, Lenz says that it was hard for her L.A.-based manager to quickly address these issues, slowing down production and exacerbating her reputation as “difficult.” Lenz, whose book also details her involvement with an Idaho-based group she describes as a “cult” during her time onOne Tree Hill, writes that she now sees parallels between the show’s creators and the group’s leader.

“They both used geography to isolate us young and trusting people from our support systems and pressure us into doing what they wanted,” she writes.

source: people.com