One Tree Hill star ‘felt like a prostitute’ filming sex scene

Actor’s comments come as a number of stars reflect on the treatment of young women in the Nineties and Noughties

Actor Hilarie Burton has recalled how she struggled to film an intimate scene with her One Tree Hill co-star Chad Michael Murray.

Appearing on the Drama Queens podcast, the 39-year-old discussed her experiences on the hit teen drama series, which ran between 2003-2012.

She revealed that one of her character Peyton’s first sex scenes with her onscreen love interest Lucas required her to plant kisses “all the way down his body” before taking off his belt.

At the time, Burton said she felt it would have been enough for the characters to do an “open-mouth kiss”, but felt as though she was not in a position to question it.

“Chad was cool to leave a white tank top on underneath his button-up shirt so I wasn’t just kissing his bare body because that’s weird,” she told her hosts, former co-stars and friends Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz.

“We’d all known each other for a couple of months, a couple of weeks?” she continued. “I was so whacked out about it, you guys. They wanted me kissing all the way down his body, down to his belt. I don’t know that you see that, but I had to undo his belt.”

Burton (centre) with ‘One Tree Hill’ co-stars Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz in 2003 (Getty Images)

Burton said the director knew she was “very concerned” with the sexual nature of the scene and told her she would only have to do “three takes max”.

She recalled going back to her trailer and telling her manager about how uncomfortable she felt: “I was like, crying in my trailer. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this. It feels dirty. It feels like they’re trying to sex everything up.’”

Bush, who starred as Brooke on the show, agreed it felt as though the writers “turned it up to a 10 out of nowhere”.

“I felt like a prostitute. It was the first moment that I was like, ‘I’m kissing someone for money. I’m getting paid to do this, like, performative [thing],’” Burton said.

“There’s a morality thing where you’re like, ‘Am I a sex worker in a way? Is this OnlyFans in 2003?’”

Burton said the support of her hair and makeup team, along with her manager, helped her regain her confidence and return to complete the scene: “It was such a moment of sisterhood that really solidified my friendships behind the camera.”

The Independent has contacted the show’s network, The CW, for comment.

Earlier this year, Burton claimed she wanted a “do-over” of One Tree Hill with a “girl boss”.