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Pasadena, California, native Sophia Bush first wrote herself into America's pop - cult ure lex icon by play ing cheerleader -t ur ned-fa shion desig ner Brooke Davis on the popular TV drama One Tree Hill for nearly a decade. Now Bush is garnering acclaim as Detective Erin Lindsay on NBC's hit police procedural Chicago P.D., recently renewed for a third season. The analytical, no-nonsense detective is not unlike the actress who plays her in her vocal advocacy for causes such as the environment and education. In a spirited conversation with friend and colleague Mariska Hargitay, Bush recently talked about the changing face of TV storytelling, her ideal Vegas weekend, and how she's working every day for a brighter future. Mariska Hargitay: Honey, how are you? Sophia Bush: I just got home and I feel like I've won the lottery. MH: "Home" home, like LA home? SB: Yeah. MH: Good for you! So, sweet Sophia, let's start at the beginning: Tell me when you first knew that you wanted to become an actor. SB: It was honestly an accident. My junior high and high school had a series of arts requirements, and I put off my theater requirement until the last semester. I knew it would interfere with all my extracurricular activities. The second semester of my eighth-grade year, they said, "You have to take a theater class," and I protested because I was on the volleyball team, and they said, "It doesn't matter. You could have done this last semester, but you waited and now you have to do it." We did a production of Our Town— MH: Oh! SB: Something just clicked, and I realized that my passion for English and my love of literature could be put into action. It rocked my world and I just thought, I get this. MH: I have a similar story. I was an athlete. I met somebody and he was like, "You should go on auditions," and I was like, "Nope, I've got a vol- leyball game; I've got a cross-country game." It wasn't until I did a play that I went, Hey, wait a minute. I like this. Doing sports as a young girl really teaches us how to strive for something. In so many ways, too, it makes you a better actor. SB: Absolutely, because you have some understanding of the need to per- severe. I get this question all the time about our schedules—people say, "What happens when you're sick?" MH: And you say, "Nobody cares." [Laughs] SB: If you're sick, you come to work with a bucket and you deal with it. MH: Speaking of work, tell me what you think it is about Chicago P.D. that the audiences connect to. SB: First of all, we're so lucky to be part of this larger wheelhouse that you've inf luenced a nd t hat Dick [ Wolf ] has been g row ing for so ma ny years. Television has grown as an industry. When I was a little kid, there were only a ha ndful of cha nnels, a nd now t here's a t housa nd to choose from. That has w idened avenues t hat we have for stor y telling, because we're not looking at shows the way we used to. I grew up watching reruns of Dragnet on Nick at Nite. There was a crime and then they solved it, and that was that. Now we've been given permission on the show to allow our heroes to be f lawed. Are they bending the rules to service the law? Are they breaking the law? Do we root for them? Are we afraid of them? Nobody's always playing perfect. MH: What's your favorite thing about playing Detective Lindsay? SB: She's not one of those bleeding hearts that sees the world and wants to fix it. She wants to fix the world because she was taken advantage of as a child, because she was recruited to work in a gang environment, because she was a drug addict, because she's been at the lowest point and seen what one person who cares about you can do for you, and now she wants to give that to other people. MH: And what initially drew you to it? SB: I'd been on location doing [One Tree Hill ] for nine years, and then I worked a season on a show in LA and was so excited to be home. I didn't quite know what I wanted to do next, but I always wanted to work for Dick, and I always wanted to work with you. I get this call, and my agent said, "Dick Wolf is doing this show, and they really want to see you for the lead female, and it shoots in Chicago," and I'm like, "No way. Chicago's so cold, it's so far away, I don't know anybody there.... I'm not going." MH: [Laughs] But Dick Wolf has a pretty good record. SB: I know. And they were like, "But Sophia, it's literally two of the three criteria for a job you've ever wanted. You could just read it." And I said, "All right." I was protesting, but not much, because in the back of my head I was so excited. And you know what that feeling is like, when you read a script and from the first moment it gets its hooks in you? I just went, "Uh-oh." [Laughs] I knew I was in trouble. MH: You've said that Law & Order: SVU, which you starred in, obvi- ously, in the crossovers, is your favorite show. What was that experience like? I want you to be honest. [Laughs] SB: For so long, I talked about how all I would do on a day off was binge- watch SVU marathons and how Mariska Harg itay was just the coolest woman on TV. I was this shameless gusher. I was doing this as an actor on a show, so these words were being printed—it wasn't, like, on my private Tumblr page. Then six or seven years ago, I was walking down the street in Soho, and I looked up, and it was like all the lights on Broadway started shining in my face—it became a weird sort of Wes A nderson film—and there you were, and I just blacked out. I know that I went up to you and that I probably babbled. I think you knew my brain was short-circuiting, and you touched my arm and said, "It's so nice to meet you. I think your show is just great. Want to take a walk with me?" And I was like, "Sure." What? And we just talked for 20 minutes, and it's weird because now we text, we e-mail, we chat, we send each other stupid pictures, but I remember that day not understanding how to compute just how genuinely lovely you were. MH: That's so gracious, but it's been such a pleasure getting to know Wonder Wom an EnvironmEntalist and ChiCago P.D. star Sophia BuSh talks to hEr friEnd and costar MariS a hargitay and Vegas magazinE about raising hEr voicE to build a bEttEr world. photography by rene & radka 72 vegasmagazine.com