'One Tree Hill' star Bethany Joy Lenz reveals what it was like making the leap from Hallmark to horror and how she managed her 'mentally exhausting' new role
- "One Tree Hill" star Bethany Joy Lenz stars in a new mystery-horror movie, "So Cold The River."
- She told Insider how she cared for herself while filming the sometimes "mentally exhausting" role.
Bethany Joy Lenz is best known for her role as Haley James Scott on the hit teen drama "One Tree Hill," which aired from 2003 to 2012 on the WB and CW. Since then, she's become a leading lady in many romantic comedies on Hallmark Channel.
Her latest project is quite a departure from her earlier work. Lenz stars as documentary filmmaker Erica Shaw in "So Cold the River" and talked to Insider about how she maintained her mental health while shooting material that she called "mentally exhausting and strenuous."
In the new movie, in theaters and available on-demand now, Erica (Lenz) has given up making documentaries to make funeral memorial videos until she gets an offer she can't refuse to profile dying millionaire Campbell Bradford. The only clue she's given about his mysterious past is a bottle filled with water from a local spring.
The bottle leads her to a resort where she begins to uncover secrets about deaths and suicides that have clouded the Bradford name for years. But when she begins to actually drink the water, she becomes more involved in the story than any artist should, and may unleash evil that she can't take back.
It's darker than much of what Lenz has filmed in recent years, and she said that while doing work like this, "taking care of yourself is really important."
"Some days I needed to have a drink with a friend, some days I needed to take a walk, some days I just needed to read, some days I needed to pray," she said about how she practiced self-care on set. "There were a lot of different things that were helpful to me."
The movie can also be viewed as an examination of female ambition, Lenz says
The movie is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Michael Koryta, which follows male filmmaker Eric Shaw.
Gender-swapping the role adds an "extra layer" to the film, according to Lenz. It allows us "to watch a woman who is dealing with an issue that has, in Western culture, been traditionally known to be in masculine trait" — ambition.
Lenz said that her character Erica deals with her ambition in "a really unhealthy way." Working in the entertainment industry from a young age, and sometimes dealing with toxic or damaging on-set conditions, Lenz knows now what healthy ambition and leadership looks like and has advice for anyone struggling with what it means to be a leader on set.
"Be more concerned with your work than you are about people liking you," Lenz told Insider. "It's important to be kind, it's important to be professional, show up on time, treat everyone with respect."
"But not everyone is going to like you or agree with you. For actors anyway," she added.
"So Cold the River" is now in theaters and available to rent or buy on-demand.