“It’s something I haven’t been able to explore yet as an actress,” says Bethany Joy Lenz (One Tree Hill) in our interview, referring to the darker themes of her new movieSo Cold the River. “I was really excited to have the opportunity to go to a darker place and do something that was a little bit more introspective.”
Indeed, in Paul Shoulberg’sbook-to-film adaptationof Michael Koryta’s eponymous bestselling horror-mystery novel, Lenz plays Erica Shaw, a documentary filmmaker — and a prolific one at that, as the movie’s earliest scenes suggest — who, after an event concerning the murderous actions of her last film’s subject, now finds herself divorced from the movie-making industry and, instead, putting together in memoriam-type videos for funeral services.
For Lenz, whose post-One Tree Hillcareer has firmly grounded itself in Hallmark and Lifetime romances and comedies likeSnowed-Inn Christmas,Royal Matchmaker, andJust My Type,playing the same typeof bright-eyed and bubbly character, Erica is a complete departure and, by extension, a showcase of what the actress can do. She certainly excels in the rom-com, but she absolutely soars inSo Cold the River. “It wasn’t too hard for me, only because most people know me as someone with a very lively, bubbly personality, which is a huge part of what I do for work,” she says on tapping into Erica’s darker side. “You have to learn how to go to the party [in this business] and interact with people, even though all I want to do is hide.” Lenz goes on to say that she has “a lot of dark days” and “introspective moments,” which is her “long-winded way of saying: to be able to play a character that doesn’t say a lot, just sits with her feelings, and thinks, was kind of a relief.”
What’s most interesting about Erica inSo Cold the Riveris how you’re unsure of what to think of her. (“She’s her own antagonist,” says Lenz.) She certainly gets by with her new career, but it’s clear from the framed posters that hang on the walls of her home, that documentary filmmaking is her true artistic love. It’s probably why she ultimately accepts an assignment from Alyssa Bradford-Cohen (Alysia Reiner,Orange is the New Black) to profile her dying millionaire father-in-law Campbell Bradford (David Myers Gregory,The Last Son). With nothing but a hefty paycheck and an odd family heirloom — a sealed bottle of perpetually ice-cold water from a local spring — Erica heads to Campbell’s hometown in Midwestern America and finds herself a guest of the sprawling West Baden Springs Hotel (a real hotel, incidentally, deemed the “8th wonder of the world” byUniq Hotels).
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On So Cold the River Gender-Swapping Her Character
Throughout her conversations with locals and staff in the hotel, Erica discovers a secret and bloody history that pins Campbell at the center. And yet, despite the silence and fear that come to those she interviews at the mention of Campbell Bradford’s name, not to mention the twisted flashbacks she has of Mr. Bradford, and the fact that she’s starting to see him in her waking life — across the room, in the mirror, through the lens of her camera — Erica pushes forward with her documentary. “I loved the subtext of the exploration of ambition, and what it does to us,” says Lenz. “Traditionally, in our culture, ambition is generally considered to be more of a masculine trait, [so] to see a woman exploring the darker sides of ambition, I thought it was an extra little cherry on top of extra interest.”
“It was a strategic move on Paul’s part,” Lenz says, when asked about Shoulberg’s decision to turn Koryta’s original protagonist Eric to Erica. This, of course, is not a new phenomenon: from Angelina Jolie’s Evelyn inSaltto Jodie Foster’s Kyle Pratt inFlight Plan, there have been many instances throughout film history in which arole originally written for menbecame better when given to women. “It’s a great time for women in film right now, and a great time to tell women stories. But I think why [the gender swap] worked really well was because it’s so interesting to see a woman outside of what we, as Americans, tend to know as ‘traditional female roles.’ It didn’t require a lot of maneuvering in writing this character as a woman. I think that’s a huge part of who she is; she moves through life and thinks in a more ‘traditionally masculine’ way.”
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When asked if she felt any extra pressure to not only successfully adapt Koryta’s bestselling for the screen, but to also prove that her character’s gender-swap made for the better story and wasn’t an example of, say, “affirmative action,” Lenz said there was no pressure at all: “It actually felt like a very natural transition.” More than that, the actress said the swap “didn’t feel forced at all. I’m so allergic to a lot of ‘forced wokeness’ […] when things are clearly just boxes being ticked off, it really bothers me, and I know it bothers a lot of other people, too. I was conscious of that, and it just didn’t feel forced. I really felt like it was an organic transition.”
On a Possible One Tree Hill Reboot
BetweenGossip Girlon HBO Max,That ’90s Show, and the upcomingQueer as Folkreboot, many shows from the 2000s are getting the reboot treatment. Indeed, we’re living in a time or remakes and re-imaginings, which has certainly divided audiences.The Atlantic, on one hand, published a piece proclaiming “Hollywood is built on unoriginal ideas,” but, on the other,Spider-Man: No Way Home’s wave of nostalgia is arguably what made it so loved by many.
Lenz recently reunited withOne Tree Hillco-stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton on two projects: an episode ofGood Samon CBS; and a podcast calledDrama Queens, in which the actresses break down episodes of their hit show. Of the possibility of joining aOne Tree Hillreboot, Lenz says: “Absolutely. People have been asking [us] that for years, and I don’t know if that had ever felt right. But for the first time since we startedDrama Queens, since we really have gone back to reclaim the bad experiences and remind ourselves of why we loved all the good experiences […] The podcast has done so much healing work for us that, now more than ever, we have started to envision what [a reboot] might look like for all of these characters. Because it’s our story to tell.”
So Cold the Riveris available in theaters March 25, and on digital and on demand July 23, 2025.
