Sophia Bush Talks Leaving Her Dream Job

Sophia Bush recently appeared on Refinery29's podcast, where she addressed her exit from Chicago PD. Here's what she had to say, as reprinted by E! News:

"I don't have to give everyone the specific break down of exactly why I left until I'm ready to do that. But, the overarching theme for me, was that I landed my dream job. I landed this job that, since I was 20 years old and trying to become an actor, I said I wanted. And aspects of it, don't get me wrong, were wonderful. But, I realized…by the end of the second season I couldn't do that job anymore.

I [went to my Chicago PD bosses between seasons three and four and] said, ‘Here's where we are. Here's everything you're aware of. Here's how I'm coming to you today. If something really drastic doesn't change, I'm leaving at the end of the year' — because I understand how the business works and how women are treated — I said, ‘I'm giving you not two weeks notice and I'm not coming in here throwing shit and breaking lamps and saying I'm never coming back. I'm giving you 23 episodes notice. I'm giving you that much time. So there will be no conversation in which I was hysterical, emotional, in which I was being a quote irrational female or whatever you want to put on it. I'm literally sitting in front of you like cool as a cucumber. If this has to be like a big swinging dick competition, I promise you I will win. But know this now: if we're not having a very different conversation by Christmas, then you know with 100 percent certainty in December that come the end of April I'm leaving.'

...it was so liberating and I immediately felt like these steel anvils had been pulled off my chest. And it was then that I realized I had been drowning and it was then that I knew just how miserable I was going to work every day.

What you start to realize is that—like if your house was burning down, you wouldn't hang out inside because your brother was in there and you loved him. You'd be like, ‘Yo, I love you. Let's get out of this house!' For me, not to put it on anybody else, but for me, it felt like I was trapped in a burning building. I was just so unhappy and it was my dream job and I was miserable and I had to go."