Sophia Bush on returning to television after 'Chicago PD': 'I now know what a dream job is'

Sophia Bush is set to star in her next TV series — and she couldn't be more excited.

The 36-year-old actress spoke to Fox News about her upcoming role in the spy thriller drama "Surveillance," her first time back on the small screen since her departure from "Chicago P.D." in 2017.

"We all have experiences where we look at something, and we think it's what we want, and then the particulars are different," Bush explained of once calling her time as Detective Erin Lindsay her "dream job."

"For me, I was very intent about thinking about where I was going to go next, and I took a hard six months off and only was reading scripts during that time, and sort of refused to do anything else, but really examined what was out there in the landscape."

For the actress, who also signed a development deal with 20th Century Fox, she knew she wanted to "be in a room where it happens."

"Not just an employee, but also a producer," Bush explained. "A person's whose voice can weigh in on the creative and also on the energy on set, and make sure women on my sets are being protected, and by and large, my entire crew is being protected. So that all felt very important to me."

Sure enough, there was one particular project that caught her eye.

"I read a lot of great scripts, but there was this one that I just couldn't stop thinking about, and it wasn't actually right for me," Bush admitted.

However, that didn't stop the "One Tree Hill" alum.

"It was so in there that I finally called up the writer and the producers and I said, 'What if we redevelop this? And what if we figure out how we can make it work so that I can do this job?'" she explained.

Happily, the creators said yes, and from there, they "spent some time really working on rewrites, putting a whole show together, and putting together the most stellar cast."

"I'm pinching myself that I get to work with these people every day," Bush gushed, noting that she now knows "what a dream job is."

Asked about what the experience from "Chicago P.D." has taught her, and what advice she can give her fans if they find themselves in a similar situation, Bush stressed the importance of being able "to give yourself a little bit of grace."

"You're allowed to change your mind. You're a human being. You're not a thing. You're not a machine that does a task and then continues to do it every day," the actress, who last December said she felt "trapped" and "was miserable" on the NBC series, explained.

Bush further shared that she recently learned from Michelle Obama while the former first lady was speaking about her new memoir "Becoming" — that in fact we should be growing up our whole lives.

"I just love that idea so much because you might set a goal, and we all do this, you set a goal, and then you reach it — what's the first thing you do? Well maybe the first thing you do is celebrate, but the second thing you do is you set your next goal."

She added: "We're always looking at the horizon, so when you get to a goal if it isn't in practice what it's going to be in your mind; if the experience of it doesn't equal the dream, find a new one... Be practical, but be relentless in the pursuit of your dreams because nobody else is going to pursue them for you."

As for what she looks for in roles now? Bush says not much has changed.

"It's the same thing I've always looked for," she admitted. "I look for people who feel multi-faceted and complex, who are real. I'm never looking to play an archetype or the token girlfriend or the sidekick. It's like, 'Who is she? Who is that person?'"

"I want to know that for my character," she continued. "I want to know that for other characters. I'm an interested in seeing human beings on television and in film and in storytelling, I want to know their complexity and their truth. That never really changes."

When it comes to "Surveillance" specifically, Bush said deciding to take on the project "was just a feeling."

"I can't explain it... It was the intellect. It was the complexity. It's so layered, and one of the things I really love about it is we're exploring this very complex world of who people are in their lives, who they are in their jobs, and what it means to work in government service, and what it means to be a patriot, and isn't everyone? And how do you define it? What does it look like?"

"Those are questions I want to answer in my life," she added. "So I would love to be answering them all day, every day at work."

According to Deadline, Bush's new role finds her as the NSA's Head of Communications, who discovers that her loyalties are "torn between protecting the government’s secrets and her own."

"I promise you'll think she's as cool as I think she is," Bush teased.

Along with filming for her new gig, the actress is also gearing up for her favorite holiday — Giving Tuesday.

"Giving Tuesday started as a movement to, I would say, calm down all of the sort of hustle and bustle around the holidays and really remind all of us that the point of the holidays, in general, are community, family, neighbors and how we support each other. In the season of giving, how are we giving back?" the PayPal ambassador — who partnered with the online payment company last year and together, raised $64 million in donations for charity — explained.

Bush also encouraged others to get involved on Nov. 27 by visiting PayPal.com/giveback.

"... What they do on the day is that 100 percent of donations made will be matched up to half a million dollars, which means we stand to raise $1 million in just one day for charity," Bush noted, revealing that this year she's focusing her efforts on the wildfires that ravaged her home state of California, and will be contributing to the United Way of Ventura.

With her busy schedule, the star admits she doesn't have any huge plans for the holidays, even though they're right around the corner.

"I'm going to be working right up until before, so I will probably come home and snuggle my dogs and lay on the couch for two days, and eventually get to some laundry," Bush said with a laugh.

"I'll see my family,"  she added. "But I'm going to need a nap!"