“Creepy” ‘One Tree Hill’ Boss Wrote Himself Into a Scene With Hilarie Burton Because She Wasn’t Speaking To Him: “What An Awkward Day At Work”

One Tree Hill stars Hilarie Burton, Sophia Bush, and Bethany Joy Lenz looked back on yet another “creepy” encounter they had with their boss on a recent episode of their rewatch podcast, Drama Queens.

Burton recalled one specific day on set when they were filming an episode for Season 5 and their boss, series creator Mark Schwahn, wrote himself into a scene with her because they were not on speaking terms.

“I wasn’t speaking to him in real life, and so he wrote himself into the episode of me hugging him,” Burton said.

Schwahn appeared in the episode as a character named Max. It was only the second time Schwahn appeared on the series throughout its nine-season run.

“It was so creepy,” Burton recalled. “I got the script and I was like, ‘All right, it’s one day of work. It’s just one day of work.'”

Bush replied, “That is so psychotic. Can you guys imagine Shonda Rhimes or Aaron Sorkin casting themselves on their own show?”

Burton recalled the lengths she went to avoid having to interact with Schwahn outside of filming that day, including inviting her own father to set. “My boyfriend’s dad [Gregory Prange] was directing, and my brother’s on set. There’s all these dudes on set and it just wasn’t quite enough, so I invited my dad to work this day and my dad came and sat behind the monitor the whole day,” she said.

“You can’t touch me, you can’t pull me into a sidebar conversation, you can’t do any of that if I’m just making jokes with my dad,” she said.

Schwahn was later accused of sexual harassment in 2017 by writer Audrey Wauchope, who claimed he had a history of being inappropriate with the show’s female writers. Wauchope and other members of the cast and crew – including Burton, Joy Lenz, and Bush – later signed an open letter detailing his inappropriate behavior and backing up Wauchope’s claims.

The One Tree Hill stars have candidly spoken on their own experiences working with Schwahn, with Burton recently revealing that Chad Michael Murray stood up for her after Schwahn allegedly grabbed her in a bar in front of multiple people. The actresses have even taken to calling him Voldemort on their podcast.

Burton later revealed her father took the opportunity to send a clear message to the showrunner when the crew broke for lunch that day of filming.

“Voldemort goes off to the production office where his office has like a view of the parking lot,” she said. “And my dad and [sound mixer Michael Rayle] proceed to go out to parking and pull out bullwhips and start doing all these tricks and cracking them real loud. It was just like a message, like: Don’t.”

“What an awkward day at work,” she said.

One Tree Hill is streaming on Max and Hulu.