Why Did Sophia Bush Exit 'Chicago P.D.'? Actress Gives Insight On Leaving Show

Sophia Bush shocked fans of "Chicago P.D." when she announced she was leaving the hit NBC drama. At the time she left the show the reasons were hazy and in a new interview with Refinary29, the actress is still keeping mum, but has given fans more insight on her decision for exiting her "dream job." “I don’t have to give everyone the specific breakdown of exactly why I left until I’m ready to do that," she said on the Unstyled podcast. "But, the overarching theme for me was that I landed my dream job. I landed this job that, since I was 20 years old and trying to become an actor, I said I wanted. And aspects of it, don’t get me wrong, were wonderful. But … I knew by the end of the second season I couldn’t do that job anymore."

Sophia continued saying that she gave her bosses notice as to what was not working for her and asking for a fix. “A year later, when I sat my bosses down — it was in the summer between seasons 3 and 4 — and I said, ‘Here’s where we are. Here’s everything you’re aware of. Here’s how I’m coming to you today. If something really drastic doesn’t change, I’m leaving at the end of the year’ — because I understand how the business works and how women are treated — I said, ‘I’m giving you not two weeks notice and I’m not coming in here throwing s— and breaking lamps and saying I’m never coming back. I’m giving you 23 episodes notice. I’m giving you that much time. So there will be no conversation in which I was hysterical, emotional, in which I was being a quote irrational female or whatever you want to put on it. I’m literally sitting in front of you like cool as a cucumber. If this has to be like a big swinging d— competition, I promise you I will win. But know this now: if we’re not having a very different conversation by Christmas, then you know with 100 percent certainty in December that come the end of April I’m leaving,’” Sophia added.

The former "One Tree Hill" star realized that things on the show would continue to be the same and didn't see any changes. “What you start to realize is that like if your house was burning down, you wouldn’t hang out inside because your brother was in there and you loved him," she said. "You’d be like, ‘Yo, I love you. Let’s get out of this house!’ For me, not to put it on anybody else, but for me, it felt like I was trapped in a burning building. I was just so unhappy and it was my dream job and I was miserable and I had to go.”

She ended the piece saying: “The analogy I like to use for big life things is almost like something’s approaching, but it’s still a little blurry in the foreground, but you can see it. You can see what the shape of it is. That’s kind of the stage where I feel like I am with the whole thing. And again, it’s hard because people who I care about are there. But again, as I was coming home and realizing that I was getting all sides of sort of accused of being heartless to screamed at for not having made my own statement, I thought, ‘I don’t owe it to any of you guys.’”