Posted 31 minutes agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret DownSophia Bush Just Revealed How Wild The Pay Disparity Was On "One Tree Hill," And It'll Probably Piss You OffThese unnecessary, unfair pay gaps are embarrassing.by Mychal ThompsonBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink Sophia Bush recently revealed how much she actually made as a network television star on the hit CW series One Tree Hill, and it's honestly upsetting. Arturo Holmes / Getty Images If you didn't know, Sophia starred in the WB (later CW) drama series One Tree Hill from 2003 to 2012 as Brooke Davis. The CW / courtesy Everett Collection The cast also included actors Chad Michael Murray (Lucas Scott), James Lafferty (Nathan Scott), Hilarie Burton (Peyton Sawyer), Bethany Joy Lenz (Haley James Scott), and Paul Johansson (Dan Scott), among others. On a Nov. 12 episode of Networth and Chill With Your Rich BFF podcast with ex-Wall Street trader Vivian Tu, Sophia got up close and personal about Hollywood's infamous pay gap between actors of different genders. Your Rich BFF / youtu.be "I'm really gonna bum you out," Sophia said to Vivian during the Tech Futures panel, which featured the podcast. According to Sophia, once she finished paying all her expenses, her take-home pay was extremely low. Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images "Once I paid 10 percent to my managers, 10 percent to my agents, five percent to my lawyers, a publicist fee, paid my taxes, and the $3,000-a-month that my two-bedroom apartment in Wilmington cost me, I was taking home about $3,000 an episode," Sophia said. Bonnie Biess / Getty Images She even noted that just to look into something like a "death threat" could cost around $2,000 to have professionals analyze it. "So, you have to gamble on like how many of these people who say they want to wear me like a skin suit can I afford to investigate." Bruce Glikas / Getty Images "The difference in pay scale was wild," Sophia said, explaining that One Tree Hill was one of her first big professional acting roles, while everybody else "was coming from something," meaning her castmates had leverage to negotiate higher salaries, and she didn't. John Nacion / Getty Images For the women, Hilarie was a former host of MTV's Total Request Live. Before OTH, Bethany starred as Michelle Bauer Santos on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. Sophia, in her words, was just the philanthropy chair of the sorority at USC. Marc Piasecki / Getty Images, Frazer Harrison / Getty Images For Sophia, her specific contract left little room for renegotiations. "When you sign a TV contract, you sign a contract for six years. They can cancel your show at any time, but you can't leave or ask for a raise because you're on a six-year deal," she said. Your Rich BFF / youtu.be The disparity continued for a long time, with her castmates even being warned against renegotiations. It wasn't until Season 4 that Sophia saw changes. According to the 43-year-old actor, her legal team told the studio to tighten up. They said, according to Sophia, "Listen, we know none of the girls are making what the boys are making. But you cannot pay her a third of what the woman making the least amount of money on the show is making." Rob Kim / Getty Images Despite the negotiations and Sophia's pay increase, she still hadn't closed the gap, as she was paid "under 20 percent of what [her] male costar was making on the show." In fact, she was barely "being paid equally to the second-lowest paid woman" in the One Tree Hill cast. Kelly Balch / Getty Images Today, all nine seasons of One Tree Hill have experienced a resurgence, reaching new generations and taking millennials down memory lane on streaming services like Hulu and Disney+, so Sophia must be getting kickbacks from that, right? Nope. (C)Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Sophia revealed that the studio that owns the show "makes all the residuals," not the cast, because contracts from decades ago didn't account for streaming platforms. Therefore, it didn't necessarily fall under the same rules as TV syndication. Santiago Felipe / Getty Images As unfair as the pay disparities might seem, Sophia, who has been an activist for a wide range of political and environmental causes, remains positive. "Look, it is what it is. That's the breaks. Still a champagne problem," she said. Michael Loccisano / Getty Images "It's always a hustle," Sophia continued. "It took me 20 years in this industry, doing 15 straight years of network TV without taking a year off ... literally, year 20 was the first time I got paid equally to my male costar," possibly referring to 2022 medical drama Good Sam that she produced and starred in. Your Rich BFF / youtu.be Wow! That makes me feel different about rewatching episodes of One Tree Hill now. Maybe I'll just stick to my old DVDs. Watch the podcast episode here: View this video on YouTube Your Rich BFF / youtube.com