I’ve unexpectedly gotten sucked into listening to Drama Queens every week so I thought I’d share the highlights so we can discuss!
Guests so far: Lee Norris, Antwon Tanner, Paul Johansson, Barbara Alyn Woods, Moira Kelly, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Bevin Prince, Maria Menounos, Keiren Hutchison, Tyler Hilton
Issues behind the scenes:
- The harassment of multiple actresses by creator Mark Schwann comes up often, as well as issues with the writers room.
- After the season 9 wrap the studio tried to sell all their wardrobe, including underwear, until Sophia intervened. She physically went in and took items she didn’t want to end up on ebay. The studio tried to bill her for all the items she took from set.
- All three of them pushed back on the writing and wardrobe in various ways, from very early on. Joy mentions Haley’s fight with Nathan about his porn usage and Haley’s late S1 satin bralette (they wanted something “sexier”). Sophia disliked a lot of Brooke’s overly sexual dialogue. Hilarie struggled with Peyton’s over-sexualization and how mopey Peyton was written as. She received a lot of fan pushback in the early days.
- They were frequently told that the show was on the verge of cancellation, despite its popularity, and that their characters/performances weren’t well received.
- They were pitted against each other in various ways. They were also very corralled into specific aesthetics. Joy got very emotional talking about how much she worried her hair change to blonde and curly in Season 3, since it might be taken as a dig at Hilarie (who said her hair was so damaged from her S2 styling that she was grateful to cut it off).
- Hilarie had input in the famous d**e shirt scene and still hears from fans about how meaningful it was for them years later. She was really reluctant to take her shirt off given the conflicts she had with the writers/producers over nudity. She deliberately chose one of her own ratty training bras so that she wouldn’t be overly sexualized and it would be clear the scene wasn’t about titillation.
Low key blind items:
- During Bevin Prince's episode they call out "the mom from Growing Pains" and another female director for shouting and being difficult to work with.
- Sophia mentions being “date-napped” (ending up on a date with someone that they planned without your knowledge or interest) by a well known actor.
Dating:
- Sophia alludes to her marriage and divorce from Chad Michael Murray, but hasn’t addressed it directly. It’s unclear if she’ll talk about it more openly at some point or not. Hilarie and Joy both have mentioned people they dated during the early filming of the show but so far nothing in depth.
- Dating between the actors was so incestous because their options were so limited in Wilmington. They were surrounded by a. Long term residents b. Military members at the nearby base c. College students and d. Each other.
- Joshua Jackson took Sophia out for drinks before they began filming (Dawson’s Creek had just wrapped the year before One Tree Hill began) and told her to expect things to get weird among the cast, since they would really only have each other.
Cast dynamics and tidbits:
- Joy and Paul are very close. Sophia, Joy and Hilarie all talk a lot about how safe Paul made them feel and how Paul acted as a buffer between them and Mark Schwann, which is interesting considering he’s been accused of harassment himself.
- Barbara Alyn Woods discussed how much discussion on the message boards impacted the writing early on. The first actor playing Peyton’s dad was recast because posters read their dynamic as romantic, and Barbara was discouraged from touching James at all because posters thought they had too much chemistry (I’m pretty sure this was TWOP which is wild honestly).
- Barbara also told a story about Barry Corbin being a total creep to her that she and the girls laugh off as cute. I guess being an old man with a Southern accent takes you far.
- Joy had a crush on Craig Sheffer.
- Sophia, Joy and Hilarie also have very positive things to say about: James, Lee, Antwon, and Brian.
- Everyone fangirled over Moira because of The Cutting Edge.
- Moira was very focused on her family and tended to do her job and go home. In retrospect she feels terrible about how the younger women struggled and how she wasn’t aware of it.
- They all have areas of the show and the plot they know pretty well and areas they don’t remember at all. Hilarie hasn’t seen anything past her S6 exit (and neither has OP) so if they make it to those episodes that’ll be fun.
- Maria Menounos is a deadly boring interviewee.
- Tyler Hilton was 20 when he joined the show. He was playing someone several years older than the main characters, but other than James Lafferty, he was one of the youngest people on set.
- Hilarie worked with Tyler on One Tree Hill and they co-starred in three movies together: A Christmas Wish, The Christmas Contract, and Christmas on the Bayou. He also worked with her husband Jeffery Dean Morgan on the Halle Berry vehicle, Extant. Hilarie and Tyler are clearly good friends and he’s also close with Joy and Sophia. All three of them have raved about him and how polite and respectful of boundaries he is.
Source: me and my Stitcher account