In 2017 girls from the forged and crew of the favored teen present One Tree Hill, together with Shantel VanSanten, wrote a letter accusing showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment. The 38-year-old actress has by no means spoken about her private experiences on the present, however has now damaged her silence, telling HELLO! that she stays grateful for the friendships these years fostered, and the way it made her the lady she is right now.
“I do not communicate fairly often about my time on One Tree Hill but it surely was so necessary for me to have gone by way of the horrifying three 12 months expertise,” the actress bravely admitted. “All of us have very completely different tales and I can say want I used to be the lady I’m right now [then], with the voice that I’ve, and my toes firmly planted on the bottom. However I can not look again and have regrets.”
Shantel appeared within the closing three seasons of The CW present, because the older sister of Haley James Scott (performed by Bethany Pleasure Lenz) and later marrying Clay Evans, Nathan Scott’s sports activities agent.
These years on the present gave her, she says, friendships which have advanced as all of them grew older and allowed them “to face in our fact and share about what we skilled”.
“It has fashioned so many selections for me transferring ahead in my profession and I am grateful for the followers that also discover [One Tree Hill] tales and our voices legitimate. I am grateful for Sophia [Bush] and Hilarie [Burton] and Pleasure [Lenz] who’ve taken again the present, and the evolution of every certainly one of us by way of surviving the completely different ranges of horror that we skilled and witnessed by the hands of individuals that ought to have made us really feel protected.”
“Now, at 38, I can say after I be a part of a present, I advocate for people who find themselves afraid to have a voice and I all the time will. I look out for these folks, I discover them and I guarantee that they’re seen and heard, and that any set I’m on turns into a protected house,” Shantel added.
“Twenty-three-year-old me that was on One Tree Hill has grown exponentially by way of every job, and whereas it was probably the most horrific expertise, I stroll away with, and may solely now discover, gratitude as a result of it allowed me to develop and to know and perceive the right way to defend myself and different folks.”
Schwan has by no means responded to the allegations which accused him, within the letter, of “psychologically and emotionally” manipulating lots of the girls on the set, and alleged it was an “open secret”.
“Many people had been spoken to in ways in which ran the spectrum from deeply upsetting, to traumatizing, to downright unlawful. And some of us had been put in positions the place we felt bodily unsafe. A couple of girl on our present had her profession trajectory threatened,” the letter learn, partially.
In 2021, Hilarie, Sophia and Pleasure launched the Drama Queens podcast, which has seen them rewatch the nine-year collection and share their reminiscences and private experiences and views. In 2022, the three actresses alleged that producers had coerced them into doing a Maxim cowl shoot, and that Schwan threatened their careers in the event that they refused to pose.
Pleasure was allegedly advised she was being changed on the shoot by one other co-star due to her physique form, whereas Sophia claimed that she didn’t need to participate as a result of her character Brooke had already been “so sexualised” by the writing.
“Till there’s some form of change in our trade, I don’t understand how we cease [speaking out],” Hilarie later mentioned in a 2023 episode. “The one motive that we made it out is as a result of we had one another.”
