Photo by David Fisher/REX
As the days go by, more and more people in all facets of the entertainment industry are outing those who sexually harassed or assaulted them over the years, and one of the latest to be accused is One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn.
TV writer Audrey Wauchope took to her Twitter account on Saturday November, 11 to share a lengthy thread which tells her story and it has all pointed back to her time working on the beloved CW drama with Mark Schwahn at the helm. “In light of the Andrew Kreisberg reporting, a couple thoughts about my first writing job that I’ve wanted to say for years but have never had the guts to. When I was 29 my writing partner @RachelSpecter and I were hired as staff writers,” she began her Twitter thread.
She continued, “To say we were excited was an understatement. To say we left that job demoralized and confused is also an understatement. One of the 1st things we were told was that the showrunner hired female writers on the basis of their looks. That’s why you’re here – he wants to f–k you. Rachel had been actress previous to writing and was told that he used to talk about her in the room before we were hired. So that’s a safe room to enter as staff writers. Imagine what that does to ones psyche.”
Wauchope goes on to explain that female writers on the show would strategically plan out where they would sit during staff meetings so as not to be touched by the showrunner and their male colleagues would try to “help” by sitting next to him instead. She then shared experiences of harassment females dealt with while working on the show, tweeting, “Sometimes we wouldn’t luck out and he’d just squeeze his disgusting body in between us and put his arms around us, grinning. He pet hair. He massaged shoulders. I know he did more but not to me so they’re not my stories to share.” She also revealed that the showrunner would show photos of an actress he was having an affair with, “Moving on. Men on staff were shown naked photos of on an actress he was having an affair with. Naked photos she didn’t know were being passed around . Naked photos they didn’t want to see. This is such a violation,both to the actress and to the men forced to look and participate.”
“He’s a man in a position of power who was allowed to run a television show for years where this behavior continuously went on. I don’t blame the men on that staff – I truly believe they were also in a way victims of psychological abuse and didn’t know what to do,” Wauchope continued, and added later in the thread, “I forgot we were staff writers on 2 shows. In the absence of a name I don’t want to implicate the good ones. The men of Cougartown are aces,” making it even easier for those reading to discern what show and what showrunner she was talking about.
Although the writer did not name names, it became more and more evident that the show she was talking about was One Tree Hill and the showrunner was Mark Schwahn, and soon after beloved One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush took to her twitter to write, “For the record. I stand with Audrey. @audreyalison #BurnItDownSis. And to the bad guys? Yeah. #FuckYourSorry cc @HilarieBurton.”
Similarly, Hilarie Burton who played Peyton Sawyer retweeted Bush’s tweet, and Bethany Joy Lenz who starred as Haley James Scott wrote, “Thank you @audreyalison.
Read her full thread here.
Telisa Carter
Telisa enjoys learning and writing about all things entertainment in the world of Hollywood. When she isn't catching up on her favorite TV shows, she likes to read, and obsess over all things football.