Sophia Bush Is Doing It All, Her Way 

Sophia Bush is fully booked. In the past month, Bush has premiered her latest movie, the pregnancy horror-thriller False Positive at the Tribeca Film Festival, debuted a podcast with her One Tree Hill costars Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz, and unveiled a new lineup of sustainable goodies on Fashionkind, the ethical luxury e-commerce site she cofounded. Luckily, the actress-entrepreneur has plenty of energy. 

Regardless of the medium she’s working in, Bush is unafraid of tackling important issues. Case in point: False Positive explores gender-based violence and the politics of pregnancy. Ilana Glazer’s marketing exec, Lucy, finds the fertility clinic of her dreams, but as the story progresses, layers of paternalism in the medical field, microaggressions, and sexism at work unfold as she becomes aware of a sinister aspect of her situation. “It felt pressing in terms of what we faced from the [Trump] administration in 2019 and the bills around the country we face now,” says Bush, who stars alongside Glazer as Corgan. “I loved the idea of making a psychological horror [film] based on examining these systems of toxicity, [tackling] bias in the medical industry, internalized misogyny, the patriarchal structure that we’ve all grown up in, but doing so in a way that highlights the horror of a woman losing her autonomy.”

As Corgan, who initially seems like Lucy’s ally, Bush plays a character whose internalized misogyny makes her a threat. “It was interesting to sit with Ilana and talk about how this new friend, who seems like a bright spot for Lucy, would turn out to be someone who, under their smile, was an unwitting agent of the patriarchy,” Bush explains. “She holds up those oppressive standards of dismissing a woman’s concerns, telling her to speak to her husband, asking her what her doctor says every time she says she is having a problem.” Filming the scenes where Corgan’s views come to light wasn’t an easy process. “It felt gross,” says Bush. “Often when the director would yell cut, [Ilana and I] would jump up and shake out our limbs because it felt disgusting to talk to each other that way. Still, Corgan adds this shiny veneer to Lucy’s fear, and that was important for the story.” 

When she isn’t playing the villain, Bush is busy introducing her millions of followers to her heroes. On her popular podcast, Work in Progress, Bush interviews the artists, politicians, athletes, tech entrepreneurs, and performers who inspire her, including Gloria Steinem, The New Republic senior editor Jamil Smith, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Her chat with Smith in September 2020 was especially moving for Bush and her audience. “Having experienced the collective outrage after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murders, being able to sit and have an intimate conversation was meaningful,” Bush says. “Just learning about his experiences and listening to him talk about how titles, degrees, education, and the spaces he’s welcomed into don’t protect him from racism or violence.”