In the final of season 3 of the soap for teenagers in prime time “The OC” – which was broadcast on May 18, 2006 – viewers were absolutely shocked when the main character of Mischa Barton, Marissa Cooper, died in a fiery car accident. In the story, Marissa’s ex-girlfriend, Kevin Volchok (Cam Gigandet), runs his car off the road while driving with her love suddenly, Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), and Marissa dies in the arms of Ryan while their car takes fire behind them. Barton, who actually spoiled the torsion shortly before the broadcast of the episode, remained silent on his reasons to leave the series for a while, but in an exclusive interview with E! News in 2021, Barton finally explained why she moved away.
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“It’s a bit complicated,” said Barton, answering a question about the moment when the conversations started on his departure. “It started early enough because it had a lot to do with them adding Rachel [Bilson, who played Marissa’s best friend Summer Roberts] At the last minute because, after the first season, a regular and evening series of everyone-and a kind of general intimidation of some of the men on the set that really seemed to be S ** Tty, “she said.” But, you know, I also loved the show and I had to build my own walls and ways to get around, dealing with this and the fame that was discovering in particular. Life following her high fame, she “felt very unprotected”.
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Barton continued, clearly indicating that the producers said they did not to have To kill Marissa:
“It has already been said, but they have somehow gave me an option. The producers were like:” Well, want your work and to sail at sunset and you can potentially return to the future in a bizarre television scenario where we can kill your character and you can continue your career you want and what you want to do? “I received offers from great films at the time and I had to refuse them. ‘The sixth sense ”and one of these things. My dream had to be offered these main roles, so that’s what happened. It was just as if it was the best thing for me and my health and just in terms of not really feeling protected by my cast and my crew at that time. “”
Mischa Barton wants its exit from the OC to be managed in a better way
According to Mischa Barton, things started to separate from the seams during the second season of the show. “So, halfway from season 2, I would say, when we started to double the episodes and to pull [became] So much more difficult, and once again, it was too much for me, “said Barton, which is a good point;” The OC “ran for more than 20 episodes per season.” I didn’t know where the character was going. I think it back quite affectionately, but there are things I think that people have hurt and the way they manipulated it. So I didn’t think I could continue. “”
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However, Barton has long been an actor – as she mentioned, she presented herself in “The Sixth Sense” when she was a child – so she was also clear that she was not afraid of hard work. “No one loves his work more than me,” said Barton. “For me, acting is a passion and something that I really like, and it was something that I appreciate great, but also I can always see things for what they are in the business.” Barton explained that she had been raised with a strong understanding of the industry and that her parents were great to make her aware of the possible alleys. “Honestly, 15 years later [at the time]I think it is sad that there is no better way that it could have been managed. “”
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Not only that, but Barton actually provided a positive perspective at the end, and she is right: Marissa obtained a huge, dramatic and exaggerated death, that is to say, if nothing else, extremely memorable. “But I also really like that she had this epic death and that it ended like that because it is memorable and it is not just another flash in the pan,” said Barton. “People always come to me to this day and they say to themselves:” I remember where I was when your character is dead! “And they are always emotional, as if it were really me. In the end,” the OC “was canceled after season 4, so maybe the lesson to learn here was” do not kill a main character “.
The creative team behind the OC says that they were in a hurry to shoot a big “ st stutum ” – So they killed Marissa
Mischa Barton was clearly indicated with regard to his release from “The OC”, but in 2023, the creators of the Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage show spoke to Vanity Fair for the 20th anniversary of the series and said to a slightly different story. As Savage said, the producers told the creative team of the show that they had to do something huge in the final of season 3 so that season 4 could happen.
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“We were great to do something with this level of drama,” said Savage. “Killing a regular in a series came down from the summit. If we wanted a four season, we have to do something like that.”
According to Schwartz, they also regret killing it too. “Looking back, we want to be able to find a different solution,” he admitted. “We did not see an alternative path at the time, that is why we took this path. But obviously with hindsight, there were many other ways that we could have caught the character of the show – and gave Mischa the break she needed and that she wanted – who would always have allowed this character to come back.” Not only that, but Schwartz said that the outcry of the fans was particularly tough: “And when we saw the reaction after Marissa’s death of this audience, it did not feel well. He did not have the impression that the public had been served or respected in the way we always wanted and visited. Immediately, we had regret at that time.”
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10 years before thatSchwartz told Daily Beast – when he celebrated a decade of the show a decade – that Barton’s release was a complex issue. When he was asked why he killed Marissa, Schwartz said:
“This is a complicated and multifaceted question. A source of frustration.
To be just towards Schwartz, Barton had not yet talked about his release, so maybe he was trying to be respectful; In any case, it does not seem that all the people involved in the death of Marissa Cooper were on the same wavelength that the fact that they all wish that this has dropped differently. In addition, “the OC” was canceled after season 4, so there was no real happy ending here.
“The OC” is in trouble on Hulu now.
