Haley James is one of the best teen drama characters and that's partly because she Nathan Scott are often considered the best couple on One Tree Hill. While fans enjoy watching Lucas Scott fall for Peyton Sawyer and the love triangle with Peyton's best pal Brooke Davis is fun, there's something sweet about Haley and Nathan. Haley never loses how clever and intelligent she is and she is always a good influence on Nathan.
While we want to know if the One Tree Hill cast got along, we know that Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray were briefly married, and we can't help but wonder if any other relationships happened offscreen. Bethany Joy Lenz recently made a comment that makes fans wonder if she had a crush on her One Tree Hill co-star. The cast often talks about One Tree Hill and this comment is particularly juicy. Let's take a look.
Did Bethany Joy Lenz Date James Lafferty?
We're used to hearing that love stories have started on a TV or movie set or that the actors had big crushes on each other but didn't end up dating. And thanks to the One Tree Hill podcast, fans can hear a lot of things that they might not otherwise know about the teen show.
Bethany Joy Lenz said she had literally dreamed about James Lafferty. According to Insider.com, Bethany shared this story on the podcast "Drama Queens" and said that because Haley and Nathan were together, she thinks that made her have actual dreams about him.
Bethany said that because she was 21 and he was 17, they didn't date. She said, "James and I always got on really well, but he was a lot younger than me. It just didn't really occur to me to have personal, romantic feelings for him."' Bethany mentioned that she thinks they seemed like they really liked each other onscreen because they were just friends offscreen: she said, "We’re kissing all day! We’re, like, making out and being all lovey-dovey, of course, it’s gonna work its way into your subconscious. But we never ever got together in real life and that’s, honestly, probably what kept the chemistry alive onscreen for so long.”
Bethany explained, "As the show went on, the more time we spent together, I mean, I would totally have a romantic dream about him and wake up and be like, 'oh wow, that was interesting."
Fans definitely love hearing these juicy details, as it sounds like while Bethany Joy Lenz didn't have any intentions of dating her co-star James Lafferty, she couldn't help but have these types of dreams about him. She explained that they spent so much time kissing on the show that it made sense that this happened.
What Was It Like For Bethany To Play Haley James Scott?
In an interview about starring on Men At Work, Bethany Joy Lenz shared that she's good at improv when she's working on a dramatic project, but it's much harder for her when it comes to comedy.
The actress said that she often changed what the script said on One Tree Hill, adding, “I was probably the bane of their existence for ten years."
Bethany Joy Lenz and Jana Kramer talked about the toxic One Tree Hill set atmosphere and they said that if a reboot happened, they know that things would go much smoother. Bethany did mention that because original showrunner Mark Schwahn would be paid for the reboot, it wouldn't be a good idea.
Bethany explained to People, “It would be great to go back and not have it feel like it was divided in any way or when we were going through a rough patch. I think we’re all older now, it’d be so much easier to really enjoy each other’s company and enjoy showing up at work, appreciate having a job, appreciate being someplace where we know we have such a huge fan base.
Bethany Joy Lenz Has Been Busy Since 'One Tree Hill'
After One Tree Hill went off the air in 2012, Bethany Joy Lenz has definitely been involved in a lot of acting projects.
Bethany appeared in several episodes of Dexter as Cassie and played Stephanie in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Bethany has also appeared in many Christmas movies, including 2014's The Christmas Secret, 2017's Snowed-Inn Christmas, and 2020s Five Star Christmas.
Bethany is also starring in the 2021 film An Unexpected Christmas about a woman named Emily who breaks up with Jamie... and then Jamie says that they should pretend that they're still in love and together.
Bethany is also an incredible singer, and One Tree Hill fans remember that Haley used to sing often on the teen drama. Bethany had a band called Everly for a while.
According to The Guardian, Bethany Joy Lenz wanted to create a musical that was based on the popular Nicholas Sparks movie The Notebook and she worked on it with Ron Aniello. In 2011, Bethany said, "We're still in development of this process. but the best way that I've always found, and it's what I've done in Hollywood or whether it's working with the publishers that I've worked with for a long time, is to work with people that you really trust, who understand what it's about and they want to take that and mold it into something new."
While Bethany Joy Lenz worked on several songs, Ingrid Michaelson has a musical based on The Notebook that is in development, according to Playbill. It will be at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the spring of 2022.
One Tree Hill fans who want to hear more fun stories should definitely listen to Drama Queens.
