Sophia Bush shows off the numerous string-like bracelets she received in a special ceremony in Laos, Southeast Asia last week. Sitting in the café of the Chamberlain West Hollywood Hotel wearing grey skinny jeans, ballet flats and a loose white tee, she recalls the ritual when her Laotian friends attached each bracelet with wishes for a bright future.
“A good friend is a founder of Pencils of Promise,” says Bush, revealing dimples the size of the Grand Canyon. “They started building schools in Laos, and are moving into Nicaragua and Guatemala, with Ghana next year. They just broke ground on their 50th school.”
For the 30-year-old actress, travels to the far corners of the world have added another dimension to her life. “From travelling, you get a perspective on the world and get back in tune with humanity in a way that you don’t from just reading about a place,” she says.
COAST TO COAST
For the past nine years, Bush has also travelled between homes in Los Angeles and North Carolina where her show One Tree Hill filmed. She portrays Brooke Davis on the hit drama, now in its final season on air. Brooke has evolved from a trouble-making vixen to a fiercely loyal friend, bringing Bush a large, loyal fan base.
“We started being very opposite people in our behaviour,” reflects the 5’5” actress on how she and her character have matured. “Over the years it was like brainwaves that ebb and flow while crossing sometimes, remaining close and other times moving further apart. Sometimes I learned from Brooke’s courageousness and willingness to say things everyone was thinking.”
So when asked if she has any professional and personal regrets, Bush immediately answers, “Are you kidding me – of course! I’ve made incredibly stupid mistakes, and yet I’ve always led with my heart, and at times that has left me sore. However, it’s taught me beautiful lessons. It’s allowed me beautiful love, even though I have made idiotic mistakes. That’s life.” She sips her chamomile tea and ponders for a minute. “I think your failures shape you as much as your successes do. Nobody is perfect.”
PASSION FOR PERFORMING
Bush was born and raised in Pasadena, California, and while she was in high school, she developed a passion for performing. She landed her first movie role in the comedy Van Wilder with Ryan Reynolds. Other film projects followed: The Hitcher, John Tucker Must Die, The Narrows and Table For Three. It was her TV character that kept her on the pages of fashion magazines and tabloids, though.
“Being powerful in Hollywood or any career path means owning your truth,” says Bush in her distinctive voice. “It’s incredibly depressing that women still feel they have to take the ‘casting couch’ route to get a job. I’ve learned to accept that as a woman, particularly one who is in charge when I’m directing and running the show, you have to have balls and be okay that when you stand up for yourself or your beliefs, you might be called a ‘bitch.’”
Bush credits her inner strength to her parents’ great work ethic (father is celeb photographer Charles Bush), and believing there are such things as right and wrong. “I certainly understand grey areas; however, there are just a few,” she says. “Friendships are riddled with grey areas, and so is love. As women, I think we’re more prone to opening our hearts, and yes, more likely than not, you’re going to get hurt; at least you’re open to the world and you want to make it better.”
Sophia Bush is a real humanitarian and altruist who has refreshingly different priorities than what you’d expect of a Hollywood starlet. She shies away from discussing her eating plan because “diet,” in her opinion, is “the worst four-letter word in the English language. The number one wish of 13-year-old women in America is to be thinner, not to be doctors, not to be lawyers, not to save the world. It’s to be thinner and not even healthy…it’s a shame. So I don’t talk about weight, I don’t talk about diet and I don’t talk about exercise.
COLLABORATION, NO COMPETITION
“We should be talking about promoting collaboration among women instead of competition; we should be talking about women who have won the Nobel Peace prize, not about actresses’ weight. My weight fluctuates five pounds, sometimes 10. So what? The measure of who I am, the sum of my worth, the measure of the passion in my soul has absolutely nothing to do with the numbers on a scale.”
Acting on her beliefs has been a lifelong process for Bush, who grew up with two religions at home, and was baffled as to why people fought wars over them and spewed hate-filled vitriol. She has devoted her life to reducing her own carbon footprint and being environmentally aware, while revealing her passions only to friends and family. After the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, she decided to bring her beliefs out into the open. “I never wanted to let anyone see how deep my environmental passions ran,” she says. “Then I realized this was something I could share and have conversations about, particularly with the women who watch my show.”
Bush almost single-handedly mobilized a huge group of young people who have joined organizations wanting to take care of the world and each other. “Their response has been incredible,” she says. “It’s really been humbling and beautiful for me.”
RECYCLE EVERYTHING.
Bush had the City of Los Angeles remove her trash cans and bring her another recycling bin because almost everything in her home gets recycled in some way. “Very few things are wasted and thrown away because everything gets handled properly. I drive a clean diesel vehicle, I compost and use it for fertilizer…life is happier when you simplify.”
Besides Pencils of Promise, Bush is active with Global Green and the U.S. Nature Conservancy, and she is also heavily involved with the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, working with environmental preservation and creating sustainable employment to support the Maasai people in Kenya. In fact, Bush will be visiting Africa over the summer with the Conservation Trust, then on to Ethiopia with Charity Water and Invisible Children.
“It’s very hard not to have a greater empathy for the world’s people once you’ve met them,” says Bush. “Plus, Africa is one of the few places where lions are actually starting to go up in numbers. I hope I don’t get to a point in life where I have to tell my children that lions used to exist. I’m hoping people wake up.”
Bush relishes her accomplishments, and celebrates her outlook on life. “Even when things are going badly for me, I think my glass is half full,” she says. “Life has taught me to understand that you don’t really know what’s happening until you are a part of it all. You don’t have the right to judge people. So I let my moral compass and my sense of right and wrong come from a place of kindness, not a place of evil or prejudice.
“People need to have a desire to be open-minded and kind. The whole purpose of being a good person and the idea of ‘love thy neighbour’ is to love your planet because it’s your neighbour as well. We’re guests here. I think that’s really it.”
