Grey’s Anatomy Actor Sophia Bush Encourages Feminist Solidarity at IOP Forum

One Tree Hill and Grey’s Anatomy actor Sophia Bush encouraged feminist solidarity in the entertainment industry despite the current atmosphere of conservative backlash at the last Institute of Politics forum of the semester on Wednesday.

Bush has used her platform to advocate for change, addressing issues ranging from women’s rights, politics, LGBTQ+ rights, and climate change. Her work has reached young audiences through her podcast, ‘Work in Progress’ and popular roles such as Brooke Davis in the One Tree Hill show.

Reflecting on a shift in attitudes around feminist advocacy over the last few years, Bush said that reactions change with every generation — but that movements made with solidarity need to persist despite backlash.

“There was a backlash to a movement that deserved to happen,” she said of the #MeToo movement. “It was a backlash to conversations about equal pay.”

Bush explained how experiencing the #MeToo movement — a social media movement where survivors shared stories of sexual harassment and abuse — helped shape her understanding of accountability and empowerment.

“For me, I think it's about figuring out what your specific experience is and then tapping into what's universal about it,” she said.

Soon after the initial expose into Harvey Weinstein for decades of sexual abuse was published in 2017, Bush worked alongside colleagues to call out One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwann for sexual harrassment. The move solidified them as the first cast to release a letter, joining the #MeToo movement as a unit.

“I think when good people stay quiet, bad behavior feels like it has the space to grow, and so knowing the systems the women built over the nine years, we worked on that project to watch each other's backs,” she said.

But now, Bush worries that Hollywood — and American politics — is moving backwards.

“We elected and adjudicated a rapist to be the President of the United States,” she said. “It doesn’t feel great.”

Bush said that President Donald Trump stands in stark relief to former President Barack Obama, who she endorsed when he first ran for president.

“I was just so deeply inspired watching Barack Obama, and watching him as a young elected official, and going, ‘That guy’s really special,’” she said.

“There’s something about him that reminds me, energetically, of a Kennedy or an MLK Jr. — these incredible orators who reminded us that our strength exists in the community fabric of this country. And so I signed on to work on that election in 2007 and really never looked back,” she added.

Bush said that despite what she sees as a negative trajectory in American politics, she remains optimistic about political discourse grounded in truth.

“I have to believe in the notion that if this moral arc of the universe is in fact long, and it does, in fact, bend toward justice,” she said. “The more of us who just yank on the moral arc of the universe in the right direction, maybe the backlash in my daughter's era won't be the backlash of mine.”