We recently caught up with Sophia Bush, star of super series "One Tree Hill" and mega celeb activist, after she took down some of Hollywood’s biggest names -- Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Jason Bateman, Paul Rudd -- in the Firefox Challenge, a charitable cage match that had each star dropping donation ‘bows to raise the most dough for their cause of choice.
“People are passionate about giving back – especially when you make giving back fun. This wasn’t going to be a cry for help or a story of pity. This was about humor and hope and inspiration and FUN," Sophia explained.
In the end, it was Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill who were right on her heels, but she beat out the boys to retain her crown as the undisputed Queen of Crowdrise, the online fundraising platform that hosted the contest. (Even Edward Norton, who founded the site, couldn't unseat Sophia!)
Of course, we got the inside scoop from the lovely Miss Bush about her quest for donation domination -- and we also asked the famously outspoken and worldly starlet, who’s both educated and enthusiastic when it comes to social awareness, about her thoughts on the upcoming Presidential election as well as her post-One Tree Hill plans.
You raised $117,000 for F*** Cancer on Crowdrise – plus an additional $25k from Mozilla as the top earner. Tell us more about F*** Cancer and why you chose it for this challenge.
I first became aware of F*** Cancer last year at the Summit Series Conference and Yael Cohen who started it, we met and just immediately became obsessed with each other. She is a wonderful champion for the cause and I really just admire the work that she does.
Something that she said to me at that conference really hit me. She said, “90% of cancers are curable in Stage One.” Now, if we were talking about a drug on the market from a pharmaceutical company that could cure 90% of patients afflicted by some illness, it would be the best drug on the market.
So, in all reality, we have practically cured cancer, we know how to cure cancer if we catch it in Stage One. And that was like a big slap in the face because I’d heard the statistics before but I had never really thought of it in a way that was comparative like that. She phrased it to me that way and said, “Why don’t more people then work on catching cancer early?”
Think about young people -- if we can train ourselves and our youth to really know the warning signs and really know what to look for in this sphere of early detection, we can kick cancer’s ass.
Heck yeah! And it looks like with the money you raised, F*** Cancer got their operating budget covered for the year. Is that right?
Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. In 2 weeks, we were able to fund F*** Cancer for the next year. That feels amazing. The fact that this Challenge as a whole, for all the charities who entered it, was able to raise $680,000 -- I mean, that’s almost a $1M in 2 weeks! Just by getting people to say, hey let’s compete and let’s offer crazy prizes and let’s write each other poetry on Twitter. And look at this magic that resulted!
It’s pretty impressive what you guys pulled off! So you obviously were busy with this Challenge but now that it’s over -- plus you finished shooting the last season (!) of One Tree Hill -- what's next for you?
For me, philanthropic efforts are a constant – much more than work or anything else in my life. And there’s a lot of exciting things happening.
I just got back from 2 weeks in Laos with Pencils for Promise and that was a life-changing and life-affirming trip. Just a really beautiful experience. I’ve been teasing the guys in the office that I’m gonna start a hashtag “#AdamBraunIsMyHero” – he’s my friend who founded P4P – and he’s really changing the world on a level that is so impressive to me, so I’m working a lot with them this year.
I work with I Am That Girl promoting women’s empowerment and looking at ways to change the way women are represented in the media – there’s a lot of good things happening in that space.
And then of course – I’m reading scripts and taking meetings and doing all the actory-y stuff on the side. [laughs]
Photo: (Getty Images)
So the big news in 2012 is the upcoming Presidential election – and you’ve been very vocal lately with your opinions. So, are you going to get involved with the upcoming Presidential election, as you did back in 2008 when you toured college campuses for Obama?
What I’m realizing is even somebody like Obama who came into office so idealistic and wanting to give everybody in this country healthcare like they have in every other first-world nation around the world, wanting to go back to a more community-based country -- we just watched it fall apart. I feel like I’ve watched a man be broken.
We’ve seen such ugliness – the bipartisanship is disgusting to me. I’m sitting here looking at this universe of politics and saying, “I’m sorry – who is representing us?” Because I don’t know anyone who’s happy with what’s happening in Washington, who thinks or feels their reps have their best interest at heart – so what’s going on? At this point, I almost want to wash my hands of all of it.
It’s 2012 and someone that wants to run our country is gonna tell me that certain citizens of this nation don’t deserve the rights that every other citizen of this nation deserves? I think it’s disgusting. You wanna tell me who I can and cannot love? I think it’s disgusting. We live in America. Everyone is supposed to be able to follow their own religion, pursue their own happiness, start their own business, love their own partner, and I just don’t understand what we’re becoming.
Obviously, there’s so many young people who feel like you do -- the Occupy Wall Street movement really resonated with them -- so there are a lot of youth who are frustrated and pissed off, who feel disenfranchised. So what is your advice?
Well, you’ve gotta read up. You’ve gotta stay educated. And you do need to vote. That’s the only way you can make yourself heard. And by the way, I call my Congressman’s office all the time; I call my state representatives all the time.
Even now, when I’m getting phone calls from the Obama campaign asking, “Hey, would you consider campaigning for us again?” I say, “Absolutely not unless he puts his foot down against the Keystone XL pipeline [Editor’s Note: He did.] because if he lets that go through, count me out.” And that means something.
Your voice matters. And if you feel like because you’re one person, you don’t count, you’re wrong. Because you might have a little voice but guess what? If you say something, then your friend says something, then 5 of their friends say something, and the ripple effect continues, before you know it, there are thousands of us speaking out about what we are passionate about and what means something to us and they have to listen. It’s when we sit by and watch injustice and we say nothing, that’s when we give in. And that’s when we don’t have a right to complain about what a s****y situation our country’s in because we let it get there.
I really admire your passion and fire about all this! So often you ask people questions and you get really lukewarm or guarded answers.
I’ve had people say to me, “You know, you’re an actor, you need to please people, what if a studio head is a staunch Republican or what if they think you’re really alienating people?” Who am I alienating? If somebody doesn’t wanna give me a job because I support equal rights for every single man and woman in this country, then I don’t wanna work for you anyway! You’ve got to stand for something, otherwise you fall for everything.
Source: MTV
