Hilarie Burton reveals how dad protected her from ‘One Tree Hill’ creator

Hilarie Burton found herself in a very ‘creepy’ and uncomfortable situation while she was working on the set of One Tree Hill with creator Mark Schwahn.

On the latest episode of her podcast Drama Queens with co-hosts and former co-stars Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz, Burton recalled an incident when Schwahn wrote himself into a scene because she wasn’t talking to him.

Burton had previously alleged that Schwahn had sexually abused her. So, when they were to film the 13th episode of season five, titled, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, she invited her brother and dad for support on set.

“I wasn’t speaking to [Schwahn] in real life, and so he wrote himself into the episode of me hugging him,” Burton shared.

“That is so psychotic,” Bush said in response. “Can you guys imagine Shonda Rhimes or Aaron Sorkin casting themselves on their own show?”

“It was so creepy,” Burton, 41, added of Schwahn’s behaviour – whom she referred to as ‘Voldemort’ on the podcast. “I got the script and I was like, ‘All right, it’s one day of work. It’s just one day of work.’”

“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,” Burton recounted.

She added that her dad also sent a not-to-subtle message to Schwahn during the lunch break.

“Voldemort goes off to the production office where his office has like a view of the parking lot. 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,” she shared. “It was just like a message, like: 'Don’t'.”