Hilarie Burton says One Tree Hill boss wrote himself into a scene with her when she wasn't speaking to him

Hilarie Burton and her One Tree Hill costars are looking back on another uncomfortable day on the set of the teen drama.

On the latest episode of the OTH rewatch podcast Drama Queens, which Burton hosts with former castmates Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz, the actress said she dreaded filming the season 5 episode "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace" because her boss — with whom she was not on speaking terms at the time — had written himself into a scene with her.

"I wasn't speaking to him in real life, and so he wrote himself into the episode of me hugging him," Burton said.

"That is so psychotic," Bush replied. "Can you guys imagine Shonda Rhimes or Aaron Sorkin casting themselves on their own show?"

As is customary on the podcast, Burton did not refer to her boss by name, instead calling him "Voldemort," after the villain in the Harry Potter franchise.

One Tree Hill, which ran from 2003 to 2012, was created by Mark Schwahn, who served as showrunner for all nine seasons. Schwahn wrote the episode in question and also appeared as a character named Max.

This is not the first time Schwahn has been accused of misusing his power on set. In 2017, he was accused of physical and emotional manipulation and sexual harassment in an open letter penned by 18 female members of One Tree Hill's cast and crew. After the letter's publication, the show's male cast members also voiced support for their colleagues.

Schwahn has not publicly addressed the allegations against him.

According to Burton, her discomfort regarding the script for "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace" prompted her to invite her father to set that day to help ease her anxiety.

"It was so creepy," she recalled. "I got the script and I was like, 'All right, it's one day of work. It's just one day of work.' And you know my boyfriend's dad [Gregory Prange] was directing, and my brother's on set. There's all these dudes on set and it just wasn't quite enough, so I invited my dad to work this day and my dad came and sat behind the monitor the whole day."

Between takes, Burton would stay close to her father. "You can't touch me, you can't pull me into a sidebar conversation, you can't do any of that if I'm just making jokes with my dad," she said.

She went on to share an anecdote about how her dad sent a not-so-subtle message about his daughter by demonstrating his prowess with a bullwhip.

When the crew took a break for lunch, "Voldemort goes off to the production office where his office has like a view of the parking lot," Burton recalled. "And my dad and [sound mixer Michael Rayle, a former animal trainer and fellow whip enthusiast] proceed to go out to parking and pull out bullwhips and start doing all these tricks and cracking them real loud. It was just like a message, like: Don't."

The story elicited laughs from Burton's costars. "What an awkward day at work," she added.

Listen to the Drama Queens episode above.

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