In New Memoir, Bethany Joy Lenz Compares ‘One Tree Hill’ Creator to Cult Leader

"Whereas the creator’s only leverage was fame, Les’s leverage was my eternal salvation," Joy Lenz writes of the OTH creator and leader of the cult she once belonged.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  October 23, 2024 | 9:59am
Photo: Getty Images CelebritiesDirt Bag One Tree Hill
In New Memoir, Bethany Joy Lenz Compares ‘One Tree Hill’ Creator to Cult Leader

This week, Bethany Joy Lenz‘s memoir, Dinner for Vampires, dropped and a series of bombshells have arrived right along with it. First—as she recently detailed to Alex Cooper on an episode of Call Her Daddy—Joy Lenz was in a cult. Not only that, but she married the cult leader’s son and the cult put them on a “sex schedule.” Second, she compares Mark Schwahn, the creator of One Tree Hill, to the cult leader—even accusing the man behind the popular CW series of isolating “young and trusting people from our support systems and pressure us into doing what they wanted.” Ah, so the “vampires” in the memoir’s title refer not just to the men in the cult but to those in Hollywood, too. Got it!

Joy Lenz reportedly begins the One Tree Hill portion of the book with an anecdote about initially passing on the series. At the time, she didn’t want to be “stuck on a teen soap” and instead, hoped to focus on film. But when a different actor who was cast for the pilot didn’t pass muster, an unnamed executive for the show asked her to do a screen test for the role. She obliged. The night before it was scheduled, however, the executive called her manager with a warning: “You tell her this show is about fucking and sucking, and if she’s gonna have a problem with that, she shouldn’t come in tomorrow.”

Still, Joy Lenz did the screen test, earned the part, and the rest, as they say, was history. However, the role became a source of friction for the cult leader—identified only as “Les” in the book—as it thwarted his control of her. Similar friction was also felt on set as Joy Lenz pushed back on Schwann’s writing for her character as it contradicted her “religious modesty.” Schwahn, she alleged, wasn’t accommodating and her only advocate—her manager—was located on the other side of the country.

“Now I see the similarity between the creator’s strategy and Les’s strategy,” Joy Lenz writes. “In hindsight, it became clear that they both used geography to isolate us young and trusting people from our support systems and pressure us into doing what they wanted. But whereas the creator’s only leverage was fame, Les’s leverage was my eternal salvation.”

“The more my personal beliefs and preferences interfered with the creator’s demands, the more he started writing things into the storylines to purposefully humiliate or antagonize me,” she continues. “Like making other characters call Haley ‘fat.’ Or having Haley ‘overreact’ to her high school boyfriend watching porn.”

Schwahn, I’ll note, was publicly accused of assault and harassment by Hilarie Burton and other members of One Tree Hill‘s cast and crew in 2017. The former alleged Schwann kissed her without consent, repeatedly touched her inappropriately, and created a culture in which women were pitted against each other. He was also said to have been verbally abusive, and prone to spreading false rumors about physical relationships with female cast members. He has never responded to the claims.

I’ve never seen a single episode of One Tree Hill, but I think I’ll be purchasing this book…

  • As if American politics couldn’t get more mortifying, former president Barack Obama rapped Eminem‘s “Lose Yourself” during a rally for Kamala Harris in Detroit. [People]
  • J.Lo‘s finest ex-husband is now weighing in on their 1998 divorce and apparently, it was all Diddy‘s fault. [Page Six]
  • Brave! Amy Adams just copped to being obsessed with Disney influencers on TikTok. [Variety]
  • The next season of Beef will star Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny. We won. [The Hollywood Reporter]
  • Grimes says she’s “less gay” for having been impregnated by Elon Musk. [Daily Mail]
  • Hans Zimmer‘s Dune score isn’t eligible for an Oscar and that doesn’t sit right with me. [Just Jared]

 
Join the discussion...