Barbara Alyn Woods Turned Down Another Role to Take a Chance on “One Tree Hill”

Barbara Alyn Woods primitively wasn't expected to beryllium connected One Tree Hill for much than 3 episodes. 

Woods, 63, revealed her character, Deb Scott, wasn't meant for nan agelong haul during an quality connected the Drama Queens podcast, hosted by erstwhile costars Bethany Joy Lenz and Robert Buckley.

"What was nan benignant of first conception of Deb? How large of a domiciled were you expected to have, and what did it look like?" Buckley asked. 

"Deb was a three-episode arc," Woods confessed to nan daze of some Buckley and Lenz.

Despite being slated for conscionable a short stint connected nan show, Woods said she took a large leap of faith, hoping showrunners mightiness alteration their mind.

"I was connected different show astatine nan aforesaid time, not a regular, but a recurring domiciled successful L.A.," Woods recalled. "I knew that One Tree Hill wanted maine for 3 episodes. I was successful emotion pinch this character. I was successful emotion pinch nan show, nan writing."

"I don't deliberation I saw into nan early that I would beryllium location further than 3 episodes, but I really wanted those 3 episodes," she added. "I had to take betwixt nan 2 shows. And nan different show would person perchance taken maine further arsenic well. I had to choose, and I chose One Tree Hill, knowing that it was only 3 episodes."

While Woods didn't sanction nan different show she was debating, she was notably moving connected Providence and American Dreams around nan aforesaid time.

Her gut instincts were right, and, of course, fans of nan teen play cognize that she stayed connected for acold much than conscionable 3 episodes.

"They extended, and I ne'er went home," she recalled. "So aft 3 episodes, they said, 'Well, they wanna support you here.' So I didn't moreover battalion for it. I ne'er moreover went home." 

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Woods ended up playing nan mother of James Lafferty's character, Nathan Scott, for nan mostly of nan show's run.

Woods, Lenz and Buckley joked that nan guidance of her characteristic changed from "boring" to a "cautionary tale" arsenic nan bid went on. However, Woods said "it was truthful overmuch fun" playing a characteristic that went disconnected nan rails a bit.

"My mentation is that nan writers connected One Tree Hill really wrote for america arsenic they sewage to cognize us," Woods said. "Maybe wrote to our strengths, possibly added immoderate drama aliases not, and possibly tried to property immoderate buttons, immoderate affectional buttons wherever we didn't want them pressed."  

One Tree Hill ran for 9 seasons, from 2003 to 2012. It tin beryllium streamed successful afloat connected Hulu and Max.