For Bethany Joy Lenz, there is no Haley without Nathan.
While talking to Call her dad host Alex Cooper on her latest podcast episode this week, Lenz, 43, reflected on her days One Tree Hill and her fondest memory of her character, Haley James Scott.
“Haley’s most famous moment? It’s hard because there have been so many with James Lafferty,” she said of her co-star, who played her longtime lover Nathan Scott on the show.
“You know, that kiss in the rain when Nathan and Haley first got together, and they just had that kiss in the rain,” she said, adding the off-camera reality, “and that hose with holes and the ice cold water… that poured down on us. It was so much fun.”
‘One Tree Hill’ Cast: Where Are They Now?
She noted that at the time, “James and I had never kissed before, and he was 17, and I was robbing the crib at the time. And it was just embarrassing — you’re breaking your teeth and trying to… you’re young kids , just like, how do we kiss on camera?”
Fans ate it up, however, coining the couple the name “Naley” as the pair went through the ups and downs of the series, which ran from 2003 to 2012.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Lenz said she wasn’t even on the show at first.
“They killed the pilot without me,” she said. “It was called Ravens at that time. I really just wanted to focus on film, I’d just finished a soap opera in New York and I wanted to try something different.”
But fate seems to have other plans.
“It’s back, they said they’re re-acting, they’re filming in two weeks and would you please go and audition for this role?” she recalled the conversation with her team. “And so I did.”
The stars of the 2003 film ‘One Tree Hill’.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy: Everett
Meet real-life romance actors One Tree Hill
Lenz spoke a lot about life and One Tree Hill lately while promoting her new memoir, Dinner for a Vampire’s Lives in a cult TV show (although it’s also in a real cult!).
In the book — and talking about it with PEOPLE — Lenz opens up about living a double life while filming the hit teen series. At the same time, she was also deeply devoted to a small, ultra-Christian group led by a shady pastor in Idaho, who controlled her career, life choices and, ultimately, her bank account.
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By the time she came out a decade later, she had to start over with barely anything to show for the nearly nine years she spent on the show — and a sense of regret and shame that she hadn’t realized she was in a cult.
“I don’t consider it brave,” she says of why she’s finally opening up. “I think it’s important. Living in silence in the suffering I’ve experienced, I don’t know if that helps anyone.” She hopes her book will empower others in similar situations: “I think this is more the right thing to do.”
Dinner for a Vampire’s Lives in a cult TV show (although it’s also in a real cult!) will be released on October 22.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education