Sophia Bush Refects On John Tucker Must Die 20 Years Later: “We Had The Time Of Our Lives”

This July marks 20 years since the release of the teen classic John Tucker Must Die. The film follows three high school girls who discover they’re all dating the same guy and team up with a new student to get revenge. Sophia Bush played one of the revenge-seekers Beth, a liberal vegan activist, opposite Brittany Snow’s newcomer Kate.

While promoting her new Tubi film Summer’s Last Resort, Bush told Pop Culture Planet that the project felt like a return to the comedy roots she explored in John Tucker Must Die. “We had the time of our lives working together that summer,” said Bush. “All the girls were so amazing. Brittany Snow and I. We were sort of going through similar situations, so we also had that great on-set experience and then we just hit the ground running off-set together.”

Bush reflected on Snow’s success over the years and how meaningful it feels to revisit the teen comedy genre two decades after one of her most beloved films. “I'm so proud of her and so happy for her for all of the things happening in her life right now. It feels kind of incredible because when I started as an actor, I really was doing a lot of comedy and to come back around to it, it's my first love,” she gushed. “To be celebrating a movie like this on the anniversary of that, it just feels really sparkly.”

She also praised her Summer’s Last Resort co-star Violet McGraw, who took on comedy for the first time in the film. “Something that I loved [was] when you showed up, you were comfortable enough to be vulnerable and say, ‘I've never done a comedy before. I'm nervous,” Bush recalled. “When I was coming up, the advice was always, ‘Fake it till you make it.’ I'd follow people around and be like, ‘What is a mark? Where am I supposed to be?’ but I was scared to ask.”

That openness helped create an environment where the cast could experiment, play improv games, and approach scenes in different ways. “We played as a group and I think you see that energy that we all found as friends and co-workers on screen because we feel like a family,” Bush said. “I was so impressed with the way that you just showed up and were so willing to dive in. I'm so proud of you.”

Summer’s Last Resort is now streaming on Tubi and you can re-watch John Tucker Must Die on Hulu and Disney+.