Bethany Joy Lenz Was Warned ‘One Tree Hill’ Was About ‘F–king and Sucking’ Before Signing On, Compares Creator to Her Cult Leader

variety.com:

Emily Longeretta Bethany Joy Lenz isn’t only opening up about her experience in the Big House Family cult. In her new book, “Dinner for Vampires,” the actor details about her time as Haley James (later Scott) on “One Tree Hill.” Lenz writes that she initially passed on the WB series since she was focused on doing film and didn’t want to be “stuck on a teen soap.” Eventually, after the actor cast as Haley didn’t work out for the pilot, she was called again; the executive knew her since he’d tried to get her to read for “What I Like About You.” “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 lovely Jennie Garth — was a woman living with her boyfriend,” Lenz writes about the Amanda Bynes-led show. “I didn’t want to normalize ‘living in sin’ for young girls.” The night before the “One Tree Hill” screen test, the executive called her manager, and said, “You tell her this show is about fucking and sucking, and if she’s gonna have a problem with that, she shouldn’t come in tomorrow.” Luckily, Lenz believed in the script enough to see past that.

The drama, which aired for nine seasons on The WB/The CW from 2003 to 2012, was much more than that and she related to Haley.

But the point came up again down the line. For example, she was once asked to try on bras for a scene and she pushed back, saying it didn’t suit her character. “‘This is what the creator wants you to wear in the scene,’ the wardrobe designer would say apologetically.

When I stood my ground as a matter of religious modesty, my manager would get a call from him: ‘She’s being difficult again.