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Sophia Bush‘s former costars from Chicago P.D. have made rare comments over the years about her surprising exit from the show.
Chicago P.D., which premiered in 2014, was introduced as a spinoff of Chicago Fire. It follows the uniformed patrol officers and the Intelligence Unit of the 21st District of the Chicago Police Department as they pursue the perpetrators of the city’s major street offenses.
Bush joined the show in season 1 in the role of Erin. She filmed four seasons before announcing her exit in 2017. In the years since her departure, Bush has opened up about dealing with a toxic environment on set — including alleged abuse.
“An inappropriate comment. A raised voice. A hair pull. A held breath. A clenched jaw. A clenched fist. Fist connecting with flesh. And then, worse. Much worse,” she wrote in her 2026 memoir, And I Will Tell You Mine. “Things done when there were fewer people in the room, but the rooms were never empty. Averted eyes, silenced protests, and whispers when something went wrong. Knowing our set was the one talked about on all the others. Bracing for conflict, for screaming, for humiliation when something, anything, triggered outsized rage.”
While Bush didn’t name names, her costar Jason Beghe was previously investigated by NBC for volatile behavior and offensive comments.
“I am deeply sorry for my behavior, which I know has been hurtful to my friends and colleagues,” he said in a 2017 statement. “I have struggled with anger issues for some time, and over the past year, I have been working with a coach to help me learn how to mitigate my temper. It’s an ongoing process, and it has been a humbling one. It is a source of great pride for me to be part of Chicago P.D.’s incredible cast and crew. I have personally apologized to anyone who I have upset, and I am committed to doing what is necessary to make up any damage that I may have caused.”
Keep scrolling to see what Bush’s other former costars said about her exit:
Jesse Lee Soffer
Soffer, who dated Bush while they played love interests on the show, called the actress’ departure “sad.”
“It’s hard. When someone leaves a show that was there from the beginning and we were a big family,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “It’s kind of like doing a new show a little bit. It’s like, what is it going to feel like now? What is the scene going to play like? What’s my character going to be doing? … It’s definitely been difficult but the show must go on.”
Jon Seda
In an interview with TVLine at the time, Seda reflected on the changes behind the scenes.
“There’s been some changes all around, from the actors to producers and things like that,” Seda said. “Sophia Bush is a great talent … when I worked with her, I just had such a great time. She’s going to be missed. I don’t think it’s so much that you even try to fill those shoes.”
He added: “You just kind of take it for what it is. That was a great character she created, and you just focus now on the team that’s there and move forward.”
LaRoyce Hawkins
LaRoyce Hawkins as Kevin Atwater. Lori Allen/NBC
“I think, naturally, when you hear about change at first, you’re always scared of what you don’t know,” Hawkins told THR in 2017 about Bush’s exit and a showrunner swap. “It’s like a basketball team so when you have a new head coach and have a general manager like those guys who allow my role in the team to grow in a healthy, safe and transparent kind of environment, I feel like I’m on a whole new team a little bit. It’s like we’ve been making the playoffs for four seasons and now we got a chance to make it to the semifinals and maybe win a championship.”
Hawkins noted that it can take “a couple of changes sometimes” to “better represent the culture of it.”
“We’re still very much the same show, we’re still made up of the same vibe that I think everybody’s used to, but we’re motivated by different things now so we’re telling different stories,” he continued. “This show is thanks to a lot of great friends, people who gave the show its legs, and gave the show the blood in its veins, but when you change that mindset, the body starts to operate a little bit differently. Love to Matt Olmstead and Mark Tinker and Sophia Bush and Brian Geraghty — we’ve lost a lot of good people. People come and go on our show, but I think right now we have the combination of the right players in place to really be able to make a powerful difference on the show.”
The One Chicago franchise is known for its frequent exits at this point, but Sophia Bush and more stars have not slowed down since walking away from Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire or Chicago Med. Bush, for one, spoke out about her departure from Chicago P.D. after season 4. “I realized that as I was thinking […]
Marina Squerciati
Squerciati spoke with TVLine after returning for season 5 in 2018 without Bush, saying, “It was a little nerve-racking in the beginning. After being off for so long, you’re like, ‘What do I do with my hands?!’ We had this great meeting in the beginning … It felt like they acknowledged the change in the show, and how we were going to take [the show in] a new direction. It made us all feel unified, and I think that was really important, because we’ve been doing it for a while.”
She concluded: “Marina and Burgess are both equally sad. Marina got a definite goodbye. But Soph and I are still very close, so it’s not a goodbye. But for Burgess, I feel like she didn’t even have the courtesy to say goodbye.”
