On the Call Her Daddy podcast, Mischa Barton said she briefly dated her O.C. co-star Ben McKenzie — when she was 17 and he was 25. “I think that kind of set things off on the wrong foot, too, because we threw ourselves all into it very fast,” Barton told host Alex Cooper, “and then you know when you break up, and things don’t work and they see you dating different people. Notoriously there was a lot of inter-dating on that show,” Barton said, alluding to Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson’s more famous on-set romance. “It was definitely tricky that it happened like right out of the gate.” Vulture has reached out for comment from McKenzie.
Barton says the relationship ended quickly, in part because producers were concerned. “I remember they were like, ‘Mischa’s disappeared with Ben and like, she’s only 17-and-a-half, 18…,’” she said. “The producers went to my parents. It was kind of a whole ordeal.”
In the years since The O.C. went off the air, the cast and crew have reevaluated a lot about it. A lot of that reexamination has been over Barton’s treatment both behind the scenes and in the crucible of fame. In the oral history of the show, executive producers lament that they weren’t more involved in creating a more harmonious work environment. Stephanie Savage recalled a time when the cast and crew were having a really nice time, and Barton was sitting by herself reading a script. “And looking back on that moment, I’m like, Why didn’t I just walk over there and go, “Hey, everyone’s sitting over here having a nice time and chatting, and we’d love for you to join us?” she said. “I remember just looking over with a very immature feeling of, I guess she’s too cool for us now to sit around and laugh, versus a more mature feeling of, Maybe she feels left out.”
