Nine seasons. Nearly 200 episodes. That will be One Tree Hill‘s legacy in a nutshell when the CW officially closes the book on the long-running drama in a few months.

“It’s done. All the stages have been torn down,”James Lafferty (Nathan) told The Hollywood Reporter at a Television Critics Assoc. party celebrating the show Thursday. “It’s the end of the road and we’ve crossed the finish line. You get more of a sense of accomplishment than you do sadness.”

Production on the final season wrapped in October but it still hasn’t sunk in yet for Lafferty and company, many of whom — along with executive producers Mark Schwahn, who told THR season 9 will be “dark,” and Joe Davola — showed up to the evening’s festivities. “I’m really grateful. It’s quite a journey,” Bethany Joy Galeotti (Haley) said toTHR of nine seasons on the WB and the CW.

Lafferty, Galeotti and co-star Sophia Bush(Brooke), who directed the series’ penultimate episode, took a moment to look back on their One Tree Hill experience and offered nuggets to the weeks ahead:

The Final Scene

Bush: “I was the last person who was filmed on the show, so the final scene for me was the final scene for One Tree Hill.”
Galeotti: “The final scene I shot was a scene on the stage and it’s on Julian’s (Austin Nichols) soundstage. It was a very emotional day. We all took turns. We all walked through the door across the stage on-camera and hopefully, they’ll use that last shot somewhere.”
Lafferty: “We all had different last days. For me, my last day was just weird. It was strange. It’s impossible for it to feel like the last day because we’ve been doing it for so long. I won’t remember that being the last day til two months, a year down the road when I realize it’s never coming back. My final scene was with Bethany Joy Galeotti. I can’t give it away but that was my final scene.”

Theme of the Final Season

Lafferty: ”It is [very dark]. It’s a totally different season and it’s something we haven’t seen before — a tall statement for what One Tree Hill is. We’ve done some pretty outlandish things. We’ve taken the audience on several rollercoasters but I can guarantee you that the audience has never seen anything like this so far.”
Bush, of Schwahn’s hint that not everyone will be seen by season’s end: “I can’t say anything about it otherwise they’re going to kill me!”
Galeotti: ”A lot of characters return who you haven’t seen in a while. That’s a lot of what this season is about, bringing the nostalgia of the last nine seasons.” (Former series regular Chad Michael Murray will be back for an appearance.)

What’s in Store for Tree Hill

Galeotti: ”Haley’s journey is going to be finding out what her limits are, what she’s capable of and exploring how to hold down the fort.”
Lafferty: ”For the first time in his life, Nathan is put in a situation that he has absolutely no control over. It’s frustrating for him to have to deal with it.”
Bush: “The pendulum in her life has swung. For a while, it was career above all else. As the career fell apart, she put her family first and became a wife and a mother. Now she’s going to find herself with a balance and find herself in the middle: how to have a career that makes her happy, how to have a marriage that makes her happy, how to run a business with her best friend.”

Favorite Moments

Lafferty: ”The entire slamball arc. It’s a hybrid sport of basketball, hockey with trampolines. I had the opportunity to learn it and play with guys who have mastered the sport. That will forever be the funnest thing I’ve ever done.”
Galeotti: “We went to Utah and that was a wonderful experience. We had water balloon fights on the roof of Karen’s cafe. Staying up late filming until three in the morning.”

Stepping Behind the Camera

Bush: “I was fortunate they gave me the second to last episode ever to direct. It’s my favorite episode I’ve ever made. I’m looking forward to getting to that point in the season because 12 and 13 really are a love letter to our little family, from the writers to the actors and the crew. It felt really good.”

Watching With the Fans

Lafferty: “I’ll watch them (the ninth season’s episodes). We all have a vested interest in how this thing ends up and I’ll also be paying close attention to fan reaction. We all want to make sure the fans are pleased by the way it ends because they’ve buoyed us this whole time.”

One Tree Hill airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.

Source: Philiana Ng @ Hollywood Reporter

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Projects > Lost on Purpose (2012) > Posters
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Public Appearances > 2012 > Interview KTLA (Jan. 11, 2012)

If you don’t live in the LA area and missed James on KTLA the other morning, you can check out his full interview below!

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Projects > One Tree Hill > Season 9 > Screen Captures > 01. Know This, We Noticed

While One Tree Hill may be known for soapy plotlines mixed in with a few psycho killers (RIP, Nanny Carrie), the heart of the series has always been the relationships. As the show embarks on its ninth and final season, we were on the set with the cast as they warned that it’s definitely not all rainbows and butterflies for the core couples. From Nathan’s absence to an accident involving one of Brooke and Julian’s babies, see what to expect when One Tree Hill returns (Wednesday, 8/7c, The CW).

Nathan and Haley: When the show picks up, Haley is back to being a working mom now that she and Brooke have reopened Karen’s Café. But as Bethany Joy Galeotti tells us, things quickly unravel from her “very glam, small-town entrepreneurial mom life.”

“Nathan is away, so that’s taking a huge toll on their relationship,” Galeotti says. Galeotti explains that she wonders who she is without her husband and how to keep him in her life while he’s gone.

As the preview shows, Nathan’s absence proves to be serious, but the actress assures us she’s content with how Haley’s journey ends. “I’m happy with Haley, what she’s been through and where she’s come. After seeing her whole journey, to have been there through everything and know that home is still home, I think it’s a good ending.”

Brooke and Julian: Brooke has certainly had it rough — romantically and physically (barely escaping death when she was attacked three seasons ago). But she finally met and married her true love, Julian. Although the couple is solid as ever, Sophia Bush says they’re rattled to the core by an accident involving one of their twin newborns. “Sometimes it’s just one little cog that gets off in the wheel and your life falls apart,” she says. Austin Nichols, who plays Julian, adds: “[The] accident could happen with any parent. Julian puts a lot of blame on himself for this.”

Even though it’s hard to imagine putting Brooke through another tragedy, Bush says if her character was coasting, it would be boring and somewhat unrealistic. “No matter how together you are, no matter how professional you are, and no matter how many good things happen, we’ve all been through things that are almost unspeakable,” she says. “It’s important for me to have played someone who is flawed and who has been hurt and who has been betrayed, even though she’s a great person.”

Clay and Quinn: As Rob Buckley, who plays Clay, told us: “Have we ever seen Clay not have issues?” So the couple is about to hit their roughest patch yet. “You’re going to get a good chance to see if we got what it takes to go the distance,” Buckley says. Shantel vanSanten, who plays Quinn, adds: “This season really tests Clay and [Quinn's] relationship and not in a way that we’re in comas or it’s life-threatening, but it really tests the strength of our love for another and the foundation that we started our relationship from.”

If Clay and Quinn do outlast their impending turmoil, vanSanten says she doesn’t necessarily believe a wedding is in the offing. “I don’t know if I want us to get married. I want us to be quirky and unconventional … and I think that if we make it through, there is a place where forever exists for them.”

Source: Robyn Ross @ TV Guide