What happened to Mischa Barton?

British-American actress, Mischa Barton played one of the most notable roles of her career when she starred in the popular tv series The O. C. as Marissa Cooper. She was the ‘beautiful and damaged daughter of a wealthy family.

However, her character was killed off in a gory car crash at the end of season 3 of the tv show. As some fans thought it was part of the original story, the actress revealed to the public in 2021 what actually contributed to her exit.

“It’s a bit complicated. It started pretty early on because it had a lot to do with them adding Rachel Bilson in last minute as, after the first season, a series regular and evening out everybody’s pay – and sort of general bullying from some of the men on set that kind of felt really shitty. But, you know, I also loved the show and had to build up on my own walls and ways of getting around dealing with that and the fame was thrust specifically at me. Just dealing with, like, the amount of invasion I was having in my personal life, I just felt very unprotected, I guess, is the best way to put it,” she said.

“I was working so hard, the longest hours probably out of all characters. It wasn’t an easy character for me to play because it wasn’t me, which is which is why I think people like it or thought Marissa was funny and latched on her. They felt like this is entertaining because she’s all over the place and who is this girl? It’s like because this New York girl was trying to play this ditzy L.A rich kid,” she added.

“I didn’t know where the character was going. I look back on it pretty fondly, but there’s stuff I think people did wrong and the way they handled it. So, I just didn’t feel I could keep going. This has been said before, but they kind of gave me an option. The producers were like, ‘Well, do you want your job and to sail off into the sunset and potentially you can come back in the future in some bizarre TV scenario or we can kill your character off and you can go on with your career that you want and what you want to do?’ I was getting offers from big films at the time and having to turn them down. They were people on set that were very mean to me. It wasn’t, like, the most ideal environment for a young, sensitive girl who’s also been thrust into stardom to have to put out with,” she explained.