While reflecting on her days on the hit teen drama The O.C., Mischa Barton stated things were “complicated” between her and her co-star Ben McKenzie due to their age gap.
During her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, Feb. 21, Barton discussed starting on the show when she was 17 and McKenzie was 25. She revealed that the romance between their The O.C. characters wasn’t just onscreen. “It was kind of complicated for me,” she explained. “I went into that a virgin, a kid, really feeling like I needed to grow up quickly.”
Mischa Barton then said that working alongside older actors was eye-opening for her. “Acting with people older than me was a bit like, ‘Oh wow. They know what they’re doing. And there’s gonna be relationships on this show and you’re gonna need to play that part,’ and I didn’t feel really ready for that ‘cause I was always a really late bloomer in school and I hadn’t really dated.”
Barton further admitted she had no idea what she was doing at the time. “So I felt like I needed to catch up I think a lot of the time,” she continued. The actress pointed out that the age gap with her co-stars was a bit tricky for everyone. “I was experiencing all my firsts and I was so young and my mom would be on set and … I just needed a lot more attention in that sense.”
Barton said there were a lot of “her firsts” at the time. The age gap noticeably separated her from her co-stars in the sense she wasn’t living on her own in Los Angeles yet.
Mischa Barton Said Her ‘Off-Screen Relationship’ With Ben McKenzie Was Her ‘First’
Speaking about her off-screen relationship with The O.C. co-star Ben McKenzie, Mischa Barton said it was her “first” as well.
“And I had no idea what I was doing,” she admitted. “I think that kind of set things off on the wrong foot, too, because it was like – you know people hook up on these shows and whatever, these things happen, but it was – we threw ourselves all into it very fast.”
After she and McKenzie parted, Barton said things got “tricky” due to the relationship occurring in the early days of the hit TV series. “I felt overwhelmed and not ready for any of that,” she said. “I remember they were like, ‘Mischa’s disappeared with Ben and she’s only 17 ½, 18,’ and the producers went to my parents and were like — it was kind of a whole ordeal.”