In Step With... Sophia Bush
by James Brady

August 2004 / Parade

Personal: Born July 8, 1982, in Los Angeles. Engaged.
Television: Includes Point of Origin, 2002; Nip/Tuck, 2003; One Tree Hill, 2003-.
Films: Include Van Wilder, 2002; Learning Curves, 2003.

Sophia Bush - the "seductive vixen" on the WB's One Tree Hill - is back for a second big season. She's also engaged to her co-star, Chad Michael Murray.

Her 22nd birthday was coming up, and Sophia Bush of the WB's successful teen series One Tree Hill was wrapping a new movie and getting ready to fly to Australia to hook up with her fiance. I don't know about you, but life wasn't quite this eventful when I was her age.

But for the very cool Ms. Bush, who was once the queen of the Rose Bowl Parade in her hometown of Pasadena, Calif., I guess you develop a certain grace under pressure. Her fiance - Chad Michael Murray, who's also on One Tree Hill - was Down Under making a movie of his own. According to Sophia, they've already set the wedding for next spring. "I feel so fortunate to have found my partner for life," said Sophia, "and to be doing the work I love."

With all the youth-oriented shows that start each fall, so few survive. So why does Ms. Bush think One Tree Hill works?

"Because it's real," she said. "What happens to these kids happens in real life: sex, pregnancy, conflict with parents, parents divorcing. There's someone in our show for everyone to relate to." Sophia plays the feisty cheerleader Brooke Davis, but she insists she isn't being typecast. "I was never a cheerleader," she told me. "Or a seductive vixen." I asked about her character.

"Brooke doesn't really have a family," she said. "She unleashes her insecurities, and then she becomes sexual to cover up. She is a role model for what not to do for young girls. Now she'll have a mother for the first time." When I asked where they would get her, Ms. Bush, now a veteran of television's wonders, said: "They'll invent a mother."

By the time you read this, both Sophia and Chad ought to be back in Wilmington, N.C., hard at work on the second season.

"It's beautiful there," Sophia said. "Nice people. Chad and I found a garage, and we hang out with the owner, Tom." Both Chad and Sophia are car buffs. "Chad built a car for me," she said, "a 1965 fastback Shelby Mustang - red with a white racing stripe. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

Brady's Bits: As a kid, Sophia Bush used to help out in her dad's photo studio. With celebrities often coming by, she developed a youthful sophistication. Sophia started performing in high school, then won the Tournament of Roses crown in 2000, which led to a professional acting career. She recently made a film with the working title, Supercross, about cross-country motorcycling. "The sport is huge," she said. "It's a rags-to-riches story about two brothers, and I play the love interest." Last year, Sophia played a teenage bisexual on the series Nip/Tuck. Did she really swap kisses with the cover girl Kate Moss, as the publicity releases said? "No," she answered. "Somehow that got on the Internet. It was an actress named Kate Mara that I was kissing." So let's set the record straight on that!


source: Sophia Bush Fan