Mischa Barton regrets that bisexual nature of her character in The O.C. was not explored enough!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In Career , Entertainment , Sexuality

British-American stage, film and TV actress, Mischa Barton started her career as a child artist. The Hammersmith-born actress did a number of film and TV series. Her notable role was that of Marissa Cooper in Fox TV series, The O.C. The show was on-air from 2003 to 2006. Looking back, Mischa has some regrets about her role exploration in the storyline.

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Mischa Barton and her role in The O.C.

Actress Mischa Barton is a highly talented actress from the UK who later acquired dual citizenship: UK and the USA. She began her career before ten years of age and did theater before switching to the small and big screens.

Mischa’s noteworthy role was in Fox TV series, The O.C. in which she portrayed the character of Marissa Cooper. The series ran on air from 2003 to 2006 and Mischa bagged two Teen Choice awards for her role.

In the three seasons of the show, Mischa played the troubled socialite Marissa. And in the series, she has a brief lesbian relationship with bisexual Alex Kelly (played by Olivia Wilde) in season two. In those days, this type of bisexual character on TV was new and it drew a lot of criticism from critics and viewers of the show.

Mischa’s regret about her character exploration on The O.C.

Currently, Mischa portrays the character of Reece Sinclair in the Aussie soap opera Neighbours. At this stage of her life, Mischa feels that the bisexual angle of Marissa was not explored enough. Her relationship with Alex was one of the phases of Marissa that was touched upon but was not dealt with in detail, Mischa feels. She wishes that the showrunners had given this bisexual aspect of Marissa more weightage. She told Gay Times:

“I do think that. That’s the thing, they were trying to write off so many of her things as ‘phases’ like her drug use and alcohol use. I mean, [her bisexuality] was touched on but not really properly looked into. I definitely see that for Marissa.”
“But, it was hard to even get that approved at the time. We really wanted that storyline, and we have some regrets that we weren’t able to do more with the Olivia and me storyline and really explore it more.”

Mischa continued:

“They really fell for each other and were a really cute couple, but I think Josh [Schwartz] wishes he could’ve written it a bit more in-depth.”

Actress Mischa: the queer icon

Due to her role on the Fox TV series, Mischa got the status of a queer icon. Is she happy about it? Mischa said yes. Mischa elaborated:

“That’s awesome, that makes me really happy. I don’t know what to say except: as you get older, the more you realise that people hold a character like that so close to their hearts and genuinely still idolise it,”
“It’s flattering and it’s very nice to see.”

Short bio on Mischa Barton

Mischa Barton is an actress from the UK who holds dual citizenship. More bio…

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