Here comes Ryan’s sideways glance.
One more shot! If this scenario does not seem familiar to you, well, then you’re just a loser. This is the OC Drinking Game, and if you have never partaken in this activity, now is the time to start (go online to find different rules).
The new season of the OC premiered on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. on FOX. And our social lives begin…Yes, only college students would find a drama series about rich kids in Newport Beach as an excuse to drink. What else would anyone expect of us?
The ridiculously attractive and well-loved Mischa Barton, who plays Marissa Cooper, even knows about the drinking game. She says Josh Schwartz, the creator and a former Trojan himself, told her about it. Since she is only 18, we’ll say that she doesn’t actually participate in the drinking part of the game.
“There should be one for every time we use product placement,” says Barton. “What happens is that our sponsors or different people send us something. So when they sent over a Jeep, we were like, ‘OK, now Summer will drive a Jeep.’ It’s funny because it is so blatantly obvious.” I’ve noticed lots of Fiji water as well.
We all have our separate reasons for finding time in our busy schedules to tune into the OC every week, whether they are to swoon over the adorable Adam Brody, to count the number of times Benjamin McKenzie is wearing a wife-beater, or even just to make fun of all of our friends from Newport. However, no one can deny the fact that we also love to watch the young and talented Mischa Barton on screen.
Marissa Cooper is hot. She’s sexy. She’s fucked up. She’s got lots of issues. She gets all of the hottest guys. She’s ridiculously rich. We love her.
We love her because she is played by Mischa Barton, who also possesses all of those traits, minus the fucked-up part. I had the opportunity of interviewing Barton. After talking with her, I have decided that she really is one cool chick.
Born in London in 1986 (yes, she is younger than most of us and around the same age as the Olsen twins), Barton stayed there for five short years and then moved to New York City with her family. She especially remembers living in London because of the two years she attended school there.
I finally learned where that slight accent comes from, too. She is half-Irish and half-English, so some of her words trace back to her European roots. When I asked Barton what her favorite beverage was, she answered in an English accent, “veeta-minn water,” also known as vitamin water.
Yet, she still considers herself a New Yorker because the Big Apple is where she has spent most of her life. New York is home, and Los Angeles is work – all part of her busy bicoastal celebrity life.
Wait. Does that mean that Brandon Davis is part of her work life since he’s in Los Angeles? It does seem almost scripted that the hot “it” OC actress would be dating one of the richest 20-somethings in the world. And he is pretty hot, too.
Of course, Mischa refused to comment on anything having to do with Davis. “I don’t talk about that,” she said. Even though I love celebrity gossip, and Star Magazine is my bible, I have to admit that I respect Barton for attempting to keep her private life private. She is almost like a 30-year-old woman who is settling down after a wild decade of her twenties and is trapped in the hot body of an 18 year old.
She can get into practically any 21-and-over club from NYC to L.A. and walks the red carpet more times than we can imagine on her way to premieres, charity events, parties and after-parties.But for some reason, Mischa’s favorite thing to do on a Saturday night is to see a show at the Troubadour or to get Chinese takeout and watch DVDs at home.
“When I was a teenager – well, when I was in high school – the cool thing to do in New York was to try to sneak into all of the clubs.” For Mischa, being 18 and getting into clubs just isn’t the same anymore. What is wrong with this girl? I hate the fact that I cannot hate her and that she is actually areally cool person who takes what she does quite seriously.Her favorite actress is Cate Blanchett because of the way she “immerses herself in her roles” and “her calm and cool stage presence.”
Barton spends most of her free time in between 14-hour working days reading through scripts or watching serious dramas, her favorite type of movies. She once admitted to reporters, “I’m more mature than kids my age because I’m constantly surrounded by adults.” When it came time to discuss potential college options with her high school advisors, Mischa says they “were not on the same page as me about my future plans.” Luckily the deal with the OC came through, and she didn’t have to deal with college at that moment.
“At times, I am jealous of my friends who go to really good schools on the East Coast and West Coast. But I know that things just didn’t fall that way for me, and I am happy with the way things have turned out,” she admits. Whoa, let’s back up for a second. Isn’t this supposed to be Marissa Cooper we’re talking about here? That’s the point! Barton is so incredibly awesome that she has created the character of Marissa, who she can relate to on some terms but also differs from on many levels.
Barton was first spotted by a talent agent when she was 8 years old and at sleep-away camp with her older sister. In addition to showing her poetry and her artwork, she also performed a monologue, which “was actually pretty bad,” in the camp’s play. She did so well that the agent convinced her to audition for a play in New York City. She got the part, and the next 10 years of her life are history.While attending school, Barton held roles in several different plays in New York City and also appeared on television shows such as “All My Children.” Her feature film debut was in 1998 with the popular Sundance film Lawn Dogs (1997) opposite Sam Rockwell.
After each day of school, when her classmates would go home for a 4 p.m. snack and then watch television, Mischa would go off to work in plays at night. “I didn’t really tell any of my friends at school about the work I was doing because I was embarrassed about it. No one would have really understood the characters I played, especially in films like ‘Lawn Dogs.’” Many of us might also recognize Barton in her minor roles in The Sixth Sense and Notting Hill. We would have loved to have known her then!
And somehow, Mischa claims she did not go on any dates in highschool and says that the majority of pick-up lines she gets are usually jokes to see how outrageous guys can be – and she claims they are not actually trying to hit on her.When it comes down to it, I will grudgingly be the first to admit that Mischa Barton’s life is a bit different than my own. Sure, Josh Schwartz has told the OC cast some stories of how great USC was and still is, but while we’re attending classes and partying on the Row, Mischa is walking down the red carpet being photographed in some expensive Chanel frock and telling reporters about her role as television star Marissa Cooper. It just isn’t the same!
Still, I hold onto the fact that Barton is only 18 and maybe she’ll call me one day to come over with takeout and watch Disney’s Finding Nemo or play X-Box with her and her sister. I mean, come on, she loves to shop and her two favorite foods are sushi and chocolate. Who can’t relate to that?
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