Paul Johansson struggled while appearing on “One Tree Hill” for nine seasons.
The 59-year-old played the tyrannical father of Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), Dan Scott on the beloved series, which ran from 2003 to 2012.
Johansson revealed on a recent episode of the “Trying to Figure It Out With Ally Petitti” podcast that he suffered from depression and alcoholism.
“It was awful,” he confessed. “I was deeply depressed and I was drinking.”
The Canadian-born actor spent “about six or seven years… drinking a couple bottles of wine a night” by himself.
“It was really tough,” he sighed. “It was just a time when I think I was absorbing the energy of the people that were looking at me and seeing me and seeing me as something that’s bad.”
Johansson even revealed that fans would “get away” from him on airplanes due to his erratic behavior.
The “Van Helsing” star noted that he was “grateful” when the show finally concluded, as the only way to “get out’ of his funk was that the drama “had to end.”
“I needed to get out and get other characters and feel other things, but then I was getting bad guy roles again because of that show,” he divulged. “It put me in a box.”
When asked the “really, really simple question” if he got any support from the series’ crew, he claimed: “Never, nothing, zero.”
Several members of the “One Tree Hill” cast have spoken out in recent years about the alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of the show’s creator Mark Schwahn.
In 2017, stars Hilarie Burton (who played Peyton Sayer), Sophia Bush (Brooke Davis) and Bethany Joy Lenz (Haley James Scott), as well as 17 other women accused the filmmaker of sexual harassment on the set.
The former “Total Request Live” host, 41, told Page Six in June how sharing her story of abuse was “freeing.”
“Honesty is always better, it sets you free,” Burton said. “I think when you’re young, you’re led to believe that keeping quiet about things is how you protect people you care about. And what I’ve learned is that speaking up is way better.”
Schwahn has never addressed the allegations made against him.
In September, “One Tree Hill” commemorated its 20th anniversary.
Murray, 42, took to social media at the time to celebrate the occasion.
“Happy 20th Fam #3,” the “A Cinderella Story” alum penned. “If you’d have asked me back in 2003… Never in my wildest dreams would I’ve thought we’d still have this magical bond.”