Sophia Bush says her movie 'Broad Trip' gives 'Dumb and Dumber' vibes

NEW YORK – "Broad Trip" isn't Sophia Bush's first brush with Buffalo.

In Sophia Bush's latest movie, "Broad Trip" (streaming now on Roku), she plays Alice, a human-resources professional who goes on a road trip with her mother, Jeanie (Lauren Holly), to Buffalo, New York. The trip is an attempt to stop her mom from marrying Wayne (Steve Guttenberg), a man she met a week ago.

While the movie was filmed in Canada, Bush has visited Buffalo before and her last trip came under a less chaotic premise. She was filming the biographical movie "Marshall," which starred Chadwick Boseman.

"I was just bopping around town watching (Boseman) be brilliant and then going to see art," Bush, 43, tells USA TODAY. She counts the Albright-Knox Art Gallery as a favorite. "So it was great."

As far as actually road tripping, Bush is down for that, too. She loves the rituals that come with it, including packing the car, stocking the cooler and creating the playlist.

"I like to stop and see something ridiculous like the nation's tallest thermometer or largest frying pan," Bush says. And yes, she has visited both in Baker, California, and Rose Hill, North Carolina, respectively. "It might be silly, but I want to see it."

There is plenty of silliness to Bush's film, which she also executive produces. The actress believes she manifested the opportunity to create it after a conversation with EGOT winner Benj Pasek, in which they fondly recalled favorite films and TV shows from their childhoods.

"Think about the incredible social progress that was made in the wake of the movies that raised us, like the John Hughes movies, the 'Home Alone'(s), the TV shows like 'Family Matters' and 'Girlfriends,' " she says. " 'Will and Grace' helping us achieve marriage equality. Joy and comedy actually is an incredible vehicle for getting excited to meet your neighbors.

"I love a zombie apocalypse," she adds. "'The Last of Us' is a perfect show, but it doesn't exactly make you want to go knock on somebody's door that you don't know."

After her conversation with Pasek, the actress informed her manager and agents that she was looking for "John Hughes energy" in her next project. Three weeks later, the script for "Broad Trip" was on her desk. Bush remembers that it gave her "Dumb and Dumber" vibes.

Holly, who played Mary Swanson in the 1994 classic with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, then became attached to the project, playing Bush's mother.

"When I tell you I left my body in the most exciting way, and then I told myself not to be weird," Bush says. "I opened the door to our table read, and I saw her and I just screamed. I definitely haven't been cool, but we just clicked, like we jumped into the ride together and we had so much fun making this movie."

Bush gained fame as Brooke Davis in WB's "One Tree Hill." After more than two decades in show business, she's looking forward to creating more comedy.

"I was brought on to 'One Tree Hill' after the pilot to be comic relief and then, it's a drama," she explains. "So eventually even the funny pot-stirrer has to sob and be like, 'But, no, I love him!' And comedy is just such a joy for me and it's just a space I want to be in more and more."