One Tree Hill had a few questionable plot lines, but one in particular haunts Chad Michael Murray.
The actor, 44 — who played Lucas Scott in the hit drama — reunited with costar James Lafferty (Nathan Scott) for PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive issue. When the two were asked what was the most shocking scene they remember filming, Lafferty immediately let Murray “take it away.”
“It was one of those scenes where I remember I begged and pleaded, begged and pleaded, ‘Please, I don’t need to be there. There is no need for Lucas Scott to be there. If you really want to do it, fine. Go ahead and write the scene, but it’s terrible,'” he recalls.
He compared the scene in question to “a total promotional scene” practically custom-made to be mocked on The Soup.
If you haven’t already guessed, Murray is talking about the hospital scene in which his character’s father Dan Scott (played by Paul Johansson) is expecting to receive a heart transplant. The organ is dropped on the floor and a dog in the waiting room, who’d accidentally consumed marijuana, snaps it up and runs away with it.
We’ll just let Murray break the scene down in his own words:
“All things are very possible, I guess, in the spectrum of things. If you were at home, and you were making pot brownies, as one does, and you fell asleep, and your dog happened to get into said pot brownies and ingest of the entire tin, first thing, of course, you’re going to do is take him to the ER. You’re not going to take him to the vet. Why would you take him to the vet? We don’t do that in pet emergency. Let’s go to the ER.
And of course at the ER, they’re going to say, ‘Hey, you can’t bring your dog, but you know what? We’ll help you out. We’re going to take a look at your dog. We’re not going to send you to the vet. No, we’re going to let the dog chill out here.’ They’re going to wait.
Now, next we’re going to obviously get exhausted because we also ate some of these said pot brownies and fell asleep. Meanwhile, my dog’s leash … It’s one of those 25-foot leashes. It goes and wraps around the whole ER, and everything’s tied up. And then, of course, if you’re going to bring a heart replacement in, it’s coming right in through the ER. You’re not going to bring it back through the loading dock. That heart comes in, and it’s not locked off. The case is not locked off. It’s coming right in [in a cooler].
It’s going to walk right in through those doors where, in fact, my dad is waiting to get said heart. He’s not in the prepping room waiting. He’s not in his gown being prepped. He’s in the ER.
And meanwhile, I’m pretty sure [his character’s girlfriend] Peyton [Hilarie Burton] is in the hospital. Yes? Or is this when we’re having a baby?
Of course, I happen to be there. And if you have a trip line in the middle of an ER, as you will, you will trip. And the [cooler] flies, and the heart goes skidding across the room. It’s not in a package. It’s just sitting right there on top of ice. And it skids across the room.
Somehow, the dog got off the leash. I’m not sure how, but he did. And as I’m standing there, he picks it up and scarfs it up and runs off. And I witnessed this entire thing, as Dan Scott also witnesses. And he knows that that’s probably his heart that just got eaten by the stoned dog who had the munchies.”
Doug Inglish
It’s been over thirteen years since One Tree Hill ended and yet Murray and Lafferty are still asked about that scene “all the time.”
“The scene went down in infamy,” says Murray.
For more Sexiest Man Alive content, including reunions from One Tree Hill, Friday Night Lights, Gilmore Girls and Scrubs, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on now.
