When 18 year old British beauty Mischa Barton became an overnight success on The OC, everyone wanted a piece of her. Now she's learning how to deal with the fame, fortune, and the endless gossip.
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NO MATER HOW MUSH SOME MAY want her to, Mischa Barton isn't about to slip into Shannen Doherty's old bad-girl stilettos anytime soon, thank you all very much. Since the 18-year-old, British-born stunner burst onto the TV scene last year as The O.C.'s riotously pretty, turbulent, sometimes chemically dependent high school heartbreaker from one of Southern California's most posh beach communities, she's been simultaneously embraced and gobsmacked by the press. But virtually everybody agreed that she's one of the great tidbits of eye candy on a show redolent of posh, sheen, and flash. Seemingly overnight, her elegant looks (which recall the young Jacqueline Bissett) and poise turned her into a brand-new favorite cover girl, product spokesperson and star-to-watch.
But if people meeting Barton had expected her to be a docile, empty-headed, vacuous bauble, they had another thing coming. An intriguing amalgam of giddy, infectious 14-year-old enthusiasm and impressively centered 40-year-old gravitas, Barton hadn't come to the business overnight. London-born, the middle daughter of a former foreign exchange broker father and an Irish photographer-homemaker mother, she had been successful in show business for a decade when The O.C. turned her into a household name. As a 9-year-old she was already landing tony off-Broadway roles, on which she capitalized by doing three years on All My Children and snagging small, memorable roles in studio films like the upchucking ghost in The Sixth Sense and the kid actress in Notting Hill.
But once The O.C. aired and became a phenomenon for its I canny brew of soap, self-satire, sex and tsuris, Barton became the show's poster child--profiled, photographed, lionized by the press as one of young Hollywood's newest, most exciting citizens and, yes, gossiped about. In a long, grueling photo shoot she could be civilized, patient and uncomplaining. But more importantly, people wanted to know, were she and hunky Benjamin McKenzie more than just costars on the show? Or was that alleged romance merely a press fabrication and was she really dating Phantom Planet band member Alex Greenwald? Was her aplomb in interviews and at social events a sign of enviable maturity or breathtaking snobbery? Most fatally, had head-spinning attention turned her into a party animal and diva of the very first order?
Before The O.C. hit the airwaves, Barton was bracing, funny, merrily sardonic, somewhat naive but nobody's fool. So now the question: Has success spoiled Mischa Barton?
STEPHEN REBELLO: They tell me you work 14-hour days on The O.C., but you're often photographed with oil heir Brandon Davis on red carpets or you're reported being spotted at this restaurant or that club. Are you a workaholic or a social animal?
MISCHA BARTON: Because I'm 18, they, meaning the press, like to push the idea that I'm outgoing and always somewhere. They take pictures of you looking not that happy and they'll make a story out of it. They not only butt in, they put spins on things, wreck things. I didn't realize why the public interest in me was there and there was a learning curve to my finding that out. I'm so not the stereotypical Orange County girl. My idea of great downtime is just taking a vacation somewhere, not partying. The truth is, I don't have much personal time, but it's fascinating how they, the press, blow up the smallest moment and make it seem like a more fascinating one. But, hey, they can't keep writing that stuff about me forever.
Q: Your name has been linked with rocker Alex Greenwald, whose band performs the theme song on the series. More recently, you've been linked with Brandon Davis.
A: I don't like to talk about it, merely because to other people, it's so fascinating--which, to me, is so silly. I don't hide anything but I don't like to parade it. I'm 18, but people take things so ridiculously seriously. It's a pretty old-fashioned mantra, but I try to keep my private life private.
Q: Lately some journalists have compared you and "bad girl" Shannen Doherty. Last season, your show was compared to Beverly Hills 90210, on which Doherty became famous, or infamous, but it's not just that, is it?
A: That was my hugest aggravation when I started the show. Partly that was the network's idea, to ride the back of something that was so successful for 10 years. 90210 is dated now to the extent where you can't even compare. I think our show is very well-written and I've had an 80-year-old and a 6-year-old come up and tell me that they watch it. At the end of the day, thank God, people will realize that the show isn't 90210. And the Shannen Doherty comparison--where do people get this from? I'm clearly not Shannen Doherty.
Q: Maybe it's because of those gossipy reports about your getting testy with the press, copping a sip of a friend's mojito at the Ivy, or reportedly hanging with Paris Hilton. Have you ever caught yourself copping a 'rude?
A: I find a lot of actors in L.A. are like that. When I see someone throwing a real prima donna attitude, though, that's not something I enjoy. I think it's weird that actors get so self-involved. Acting is putting yourself in someone else's skin, not being absorbed in your own. I'm constantly reminding myself how fortunate I am to be in this position. Luckily, I'm also surrounded by family and I get a good talking to from my mother, sister and friends all the time. I get my ass kicked on a fairly daily basis, practically.
Q: Do you and Paris Hilton hang out?
A: That's ridiculous. I've met her once. I've seen her out but there's no way you haven't seen Paris Hilton if you're in this business. She's everywhere. The press wants to believe there's a tie-in with me and that Hollywood set that Paris is very much part of--that "young Hollywood" generation. It's easy to get lumped into that pile but I'm not in it.
Q: When it comes to the public curiosity and perception of you, do you think any blurring goes on between your O.C. character and your off-screen life?
A: I hate it when people automatically assume they know something for sure about someone's work or their life. When you're in a TV show and in someone's home week-to-week, they develop a relationship with the characters. When people come up to you and call you Marissa, that's great. The positive side is our fans, whom I love. They're the reason you're on the air and they give you feedback like, "Please have Marissa get back with Ryan." The negative side is that your personal life gets sucked into it. The press wants to know everything about your private life because they think they know you.
Q: How well do you think you're handling the scrutiny?
A: There was a time I was really paranoid, sure everybody was either looking at me or calling the press. I just hated it. I didn't want to go anywhere. I'm never going to enjoy hamming it up for the camera and being watched when I'm walking down the street and, at first, I was easily affected by things. I had to learn to shrug things off. I still get annoyed every time someone shoves a camera in my face when I just want to go to the movies or the store. But I think I've adjusted well. Overcoming this stuff is a process. This whole thing has made me more reclusive. But it's a waste of time to become really reclusive.
Q: What's your take on the quality of Hollywood friendships and romantic relationships?
A: It's very difficult to have true relationships in a town where people are so caught up in all the wrong things. For every hundred people who aren't straightforward, there may be one person who can actually be a friend. I've shed a lot of people and been really pressed to find my perfect social world here. In New York, all my friends are in college and have a wider outlook on life. Here, people are very accepting of you if you're on a hit show. It's a very beneficial lesson to learn whom you can trust and whom you can't. If I was not working on a television show, I probably wouldn't even live in this state, much less this country.
Q: Like others who are very famous, do you ever tune-in spiritually?
A: I allow myself to take on way too much stress, but I'm not good at relieving it through anything but acting. But I'm not one of these people really into the latest fetishes like yoga or the Kabbalah. I can't imagine anything worse than wearing a trendy red bracelet around my arm and running around saying, "I'm at peace with myself" [laughs]. To me, that's totally hypocritical.
Q: How do you react to The O.C.'s being a tamer show in subject matter than in earlier episodes?
A: America is a very conservative country. I learned that the hard way when I did that lesbian storyline on Once and Again, which was banned in certain states. We've regressed, I think. When we first started doing the show, it addressed teenage sexuality and drugs. Not to blame anybody, but Janet Jackson on the Superbowl had a direct impact on us. The other day, we had to re-cut an entire scene because a line--something so stupid, just nothing--was found too controversial. Personally, I'd push the limit as far as anyone wants to. Honestly, I don't care if we lose five million viewers if I think the show is better. For me, the banal is not so interesting. Not that our show is banal, but we have to play a lot of scenes now where things are toned-down.
Q: Are you political?
A: My family is very political. My sister studied law, politics and economics in college. She's a barrister and very political, as are my grandfather and little sister. I'm a British-Irish citizen, but if I were an American citizen, I would back John Kerry. This country is very split. So many young people don't realize the difference voting makes. They think voting is for "those people."
Q: Recently you've been mentioned as the star of a couple of movies, like Hexxx, a horror film set in New Orleans with a voodoo background.
A: It's cool finally to be in a position where people attach you to a script, want you to develop the project and let you have a lot of artistic freedom with it. They're not forcing, like, teen comedies on me. Hexxx is a better-written horror movie than most, a really good page-turner. It's got some clichéd things in it, but in a very good formula kind of way. It's about a school where a girl committed suicide a long time ago. It could be quite dark. I'm also going to film Black Autumn for [20th Century] Fox on the weekends. It's also pretty dark and is mostly about a really bright orphan girl--that'll be Evan Rachel Wood--who finds out she has powers and learns all this weird shit about the expensive school she is in. I can't do anything bigger than the role I'm doing, which is the bitchy roommate.
Q: You live with your mother but, now that you're making more money, are you itching to move out on your own?
A: I'm probably going to buy a place soon. I want something that is European, like Spanish or Mediterranean. I hate Art Deco--anything that looks like it belongs in Palm Springs is exactly what I don't want. Every place my family and I have ever lived in is a fixer-upper and there's something rewarding about buying a place like that. In New York, we bought a loft space that was in a factory and converted it into a real loft. In London, we pretty much built the whole house. My decorating taste used to be very minimalist, a very New York attitude, but I've changed completely. I like Middle Eastern and Asian-influenced things--I love Thai things, Indian colors, things that are soulful and embellished, with a worldly feel.
Q: Have you bought a car?
A: I haven't even learned to drive. When I could have gotten my license, I went to France for a month. I don't go out that much, so there's really not been much need for me to drive. My mom takes me places, even though I know she's getting tired of it [laughs]. I don't need any more freedom than I already have. I'm perfectly comfortable if, on a whim, I want to go somewhere and I'll get a taxi. I don't feel the need to drive myself to work and stress myself out. It's something I know I have to do, but when I see how the paparazzi follow cars I'm in, I'm so glad I'm not driving because I know I'd get flustered.
Q: When you have time, what do you like to read?
A: I loved A Confederacy of Dunces. I started reading Dostoevsky, but it's not really good for reading on the set. It wasn't going fast enough for me. Everybody says you have to read "this week's classic," books like The Devil Wears Prada. I started reading that but put it down. I loved Howards End. I like classics.
Q: What should we not be surprised to hear about you in the next couple of years?
A: That I go back to my roots again, like theater. I mean, I ran into Tony Kushner at the Emmy Awards this year and he's the playwright who first cast me as an 9-year-old in his play off-Broadway. I've come so far from what I started out doing. When something takes off like The O.C. has, you long for what you once had. My life and career are a bal¬ancing act between New York and L.A., a balancing act between television and film. But that's the thing--I'm finally finding the balance.
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