‘Hot-Girl-Meets-Punk-Rock’ look got nixed at Sophia Bush’s One Tree Hill audition

In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes From a Life in Progress, shared by Variety, Sophia Bush says the note that came back after her first One Tree Hill audition wasn’t about acting at all. Executives, relaying feedback through her agent, wanted her to look “more” like Brooke Davis — and made it clear they thought she didn’t.

So she recalibrated for round two, leaning into an edgier, sexier look — and still hit another wall.

“For the second audition, I went hot-girl-meets-punk-rock—a military miniskirt, stilettos with sharp gold heels, a dark, low-cut tank top, and smudgy eyeliner. The response? ‘This is too much. We want high school s***, not college s***,’” she wrote.

Bush writes that she wasn’t an expert at curating a character’s wardrobe — that’s what costume departments are for — and the back-and-forth gave her real anxiety. A woman in the show’s costume department ultimately stepped in to help her nail the look that would let the team “see” Brooke, the charismatic queen bee who became one of the series’ signature characters.

How Brooke was born

The actress also shares that Brooke didn’t exist in early conversations about the show. With so many heavy plotlines baked into the teen drama, execs were reportedly looking for a spark of levity and mischief — and that’s where Brooke came in.

“A fiery addition who could offer comic relief and stir the pot. A little bit of sass, a little bit of joy!” she wrote. “Thus, Brooke Davis was born.”

Bush admits she initially didn’t see herself as a match for the role, but when a separate ABC pilot fell through, she took another look at One Tree Hill — and landed it. She went on to play Brooke Davis for nine seasons, later headlining series including Chicago P.D. and Good Sam.