Before this assignment landed on my desk, I’d never seen The O.C. According to my colleagues and friends, I’d sorely missed out. The show prompts a visceral reaction in fans, most of whom crave nostalgia in an online era marred by depressing headlines and Trump’s Twitter account.
Naturally, I binge-watched a few episodes in preparation for chatting with Mischa Barton, who played protagonist Marissa Cooper on the beloved HBO show. Idyllic So-Cal coastal landscapes unfurled across my screen, dotted with asymmetrical Diane von Furstenberg dresses, velour tracksuits, aqua blue eyeshadow, problematic parents, dodgy boyfriends and vintage Pucci. My sleep schedule was doomed from the get-go.
© @smiggi
© @smiggiThe show was an overnight success, and aged 17, the Anglo-American actress was catapulted into the public eye - alongside co-stars Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson. “I was really homesick for New York for a long time and in the beginning I would fly back every weekend,” the star tells me over Zoom from the set of her cover shoot, her Malibu blonde hair tonged into romantically dropped curls to frame her open face. “Any spare moments I had, I’d be back in Manhattan. You do eventually get sucked into it - I love California for some reasons, but I do find it to be an alien land.”
The show’s upper-crust Newport Beach setting was a far cry from Mischa’s East Coast upbringing. Born in London to Irish-English parents, a 5-year-old Mischa and her family upped sticks and moved across the pond to Manhattan, which she calls home. “[California] is about as far from London and New York as you can get. In some ways that's a good thing. I do miss the driving culture - being able to go for those long drives through the hills. I became very accustomed to it in my 20s. But it’s a very foreign place. People are very different.”
Ah, the Hollywood effect. Los Angeles has long grappled with its inauthentic reputation (cue the symphony of Valley Girl drawls and teacup chihuahuas), but for the rising actress, it was a real culture shock. “I was lucky to finish school in New York. My sister had to finish high school in LA and that was a whole thing. I'm glad that I skipped that. Going in as an adult is one thing, but actually having to go to school there would have been…” she trails off. “I don't think I would have liked it. I already struggled enough with blending into the LA scene as it was.”
© @smiggiThis seems surprising, considering the actress had the aesthetic make-up of a Hollywood muse with the resumé to match. She started out in the theatre as a child - her raw talent catching the eye of an agent who opened the door to the world of auditioning. Mischa landed on her feet with her first acting job in Tony Kushner’s 1994 play Slavs!, written by the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright behind Angels in America.
She defines her early work as “quite serious, heavy theatre with heavyweight people,” listing off early roles in James Lapine’s 12 Dreams featuring Marisa Tomei and the Broadway debut of Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare starring two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest.
Film soon came calling, and aged 12, Mischa secured a leading role alongside Sam Rockwell in John Duigan’s 1997 British comedy Lawn Dogs. The Kentucky-based picture follows the story of 10-year-old Devon and her friendship with 21-year-old local gardener Trent. It’s an unnerving watch with dark undertones, but Mischa was shielded by the crew accordingly.
© @smiggi"I already struggled enough with blending into the LA scene as it was"
“Sam's the best - he couldn't be cooler,” she says of the Oscar winner. “That was my first big movie role and I got so lucky with him. You asked if they put any protective measures in place and Sam was a huge part of it. Yes, they did, generally, but also he was so great to work with. He's so talented and so himself. He’s down to play and just be zany, cool and normal.”
As a die-hard fan of Jojo Rabbit, this was a relief to hear - given that the film industry is mottled by slippery men. Adding to her roster of impressive childhood film roles, she went on to star opposite Bruce Willis and Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout supernatural thriller. The role marked a decisive turning point - both for her career, and her life at school.
“The cat was out of the bag after that,” she reflects. “There was no hiding my career at that point because before, I had managed to go to my public school in Manhattan then leave to do films relatively under the radar. It was somewhere between the Calvin Klein campaign that hit all the billboards, bus stops and the popcorn bags at the theatres and The Sixth Sense… there was just no hiding it. It did change things drastically.”
© @smiggiRegardless, she stayed in school - rejecting the option of home tuition. Spending so much time in Los Angeles for auditions motivated her family to once again up and move to the Golden State, where Mischa jokes they welcomed the sun-soaked lifestyle after hopping from London to New York. She didn’t want to leave the humdrum of the Big Apple, describing herself as a loyal New Yorker, but The O.C. was the deciding factor.
While Mischa talks about her experience on the show fairly freely, I get the impression that she doesn’t want to dwell on the past. Except for Marissa's wardrobe, which was bequeathed to her by top fashion houses wanting to be featured on the show after it took off: “Once I’d established that relationship with some of the fashion houses, like Karl [Lagerfeld] at Chanel, they were sending clothes. Most of the time TV is not lucrative for brands, but Karl was such a huge supporter of mine. We got a lot of cool designer clothes, like Missoni dresses, but the costume department did a great job.”
"Most of the time TV is not lucrative for brands, but Karl [Lagerfeld] was such a huge supporter of mine"
© @smiggiDuring the early seasons, the preppy Orange County dress codes felt foreign to the star, who now describes her personal style as “equestrian chic.”. The polo shirts and mini skirts were essential for crafting the characters’ trust fund baby personas, as was the beachy swimwear that embodied an attitude of California cool ("I thought, ‘I’m wearing a bikini and these shorts - that’s it?!’ ”) Safe to say, Mischa was relieved when the major maisons got involved, which helped to sell the luxury lifestyle of the American dream onscreen.
Considering the unrelenting attention she received from the paparazzi (many fans today lambaste the Noughties media for its hypersexualisation of the then-teenager), I’m not surprised that she doesn’t fancy getting into the nitty gritty subjects. Even in recent exposés, journalists haven’t always been kind to her.
© @smiggiRegardless, she steams ahead and has slowly rebuilt her trust in the industry that commodified the young actress at her peak then left her to navigate the fallout. Does she mind when fans approach her to discuss the show? Not one bit. “What's fun right now is this whole new generation watching The O.C. and then coming out to the theatre to see the play I’m in because of it. I think that's quite sweet.”
“What's fun right now is this whole new generation watching The O.C."
She continues: “There is a very cool fan base over here in London that I'm very appreciative for. It’s one of the reasons why I love to spend time here, not because people like me or know who I am, but because I love British cinema. I really respect it. I love British actors and splitting my time between the US and UK.”
Stunning, I thought, the perfect time to bring up two film experiences I’ve been dying to ask her about. “Outside the theatre yesterday, a dad came up to me and said his daughter was in St Trinian's with me,” she laughs. Mischa played J.J French, former Posh Totty and head girl-turned PR guru. The nostalgia value of her CV is truly unmatched.
© @smiggiYet, she found herself truly starstruck when acting alongside Hugh Grant in Richards Curtis’ Brit classic Notting Hill: “I was sad that I didn't get to meet Julia Roberts when I was doing it, but Hugh is one of my favourite actors so I was very content doing what I was doing that day. I found out that we were both born in the same hospital in Hammersmith.”
Speaking of birthdays, Mischa turned 40 early this year. While aging and Hollywood have historically meshed like water and oil (Meryl Streep famously recounted that many witch roles came her way when she hit the milestone), Mischa embraces a different approach. “I have no need to like to try to be younger - quite the opposite. I'm excited about getting older. I’ve talked everyone's ear off about it,” she says candidly. “Anybody who really knows me knows that I'm happy to be me. I'm very comfortable with the growth and progression that I've had in life. There’s nothing about aging that scares me.”
Citing the illustrious careers of Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet and her idol Cate Blanchett as proof, Mischa explains that film now not only offers better roles for actresses, but that there is a “voracious” appetite for them: “You don't have to play the girlfriend anymore or ‘just’ a mum. Those days of vanilla typecasting are over. People don't really stand for it anymore.
© @smiggiKnowing her fanbase refuses to let her shed the shadow of Marissa, is she wary about being pigeonholed? “It was very hard in my 20s moving into my 30s to not get typecast as doing the same roles as The O.C. The good thing about getting older is that this world opens up to you and you can make new decisions. I’ve turned down things that feel like they're very on the nose. I really think it's what you bring to characters too though, right? It really is what you bring to the role and who you are that bleeds into it as well.”
“You don't have to play the girlfriend anymore or ‘just’ a mum - those days of vanilla typecasting are over"
Looking back at over 30 years in the public eye, the acting veteran seems completely at ease in her own skin - grabbing this new chapter of life with both hands. It’s a welcome break from the social media onslaught of Ozempic-related content and celebrity diet culture. Regardless, the industry remains pretty unrelenting towards women of any age. Given how the media treated her, you’d think Mischa would tell aspiring actors to steer clear - but that’s not quite the case.
© @smiggi“Anything that looks like it happened overnight or was an accident is not true. It's years of really hard work,” she coolly stresses. Whenever people tell me they want to be an actor I say, ‘Okay, just get ready for a lot of rejection.’ If you’re passionate then go for it - there is no point thinking ‘what if?’ Careers start at all ages, but it's definitely not for the faint-hearted.”
Faint-hearted is the last adjective that comes to mind when speaking of the star. Of course I’d read the articles and watched the clickbait WatchMojo videos while deep diving into her past. They painted her out to be messy and chaotic, which couldn’t be further afield from the woman speaking from set today. “With some of the actors I'm working with now, it's incredible to hear their stories of when they became famous and their experience of the industry’s ebbs and flows,” she says, a testament to the fact that sometimes we need to crack a little to crystalise.
"Careers start at all ages, but it's definitely not for the faint-hearted"
© @smiggiIn a time when nostalgia remains our strongest cultural currency, legacies like Mischa’s continue to intrigue. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are forever grateful for Marissa’s gripping plotlines and Y2K outfit inspiration, but that is only a small piece of the puzzle. For now, she’s returning to her roots onstage, while planning some belated birthday celebrations with friends back in New York after 8 months away.
For all the noise that once surrounded her, Mischa Barton is now moving to the beat of her own drum - and what we are witnessing is her next act.
