Remember Mischa Barton? She was my ultimate girl crush circa 2003/4. I wanted to be her. She was the shiznit, she was Marissa freakin Cooper from The OC. She had the unique ability of being (admittedly) a pretty woeful actress yet still being convincing as the vacant-faced Marissa who did little other than say 'Ryan' and look sad a whole bunch of times. In spite of her lukewarm acting chops, she had great hair (which I painstakingly tried to replicate) and a body to boot. At 16/17, I was hardly after a thespian of Pacino-like standard; I was a raging bag of hormones and The OC was the perfect antidote. Though Rachel Bilson may have been considered by most to be the hotter one, it was always Mischa's character whose welfare we truly cared for. Summer and Seth had it made, Ryan and Marissa, however, was tougher ground.
She always did the wrong thing though, Marissa. But we still loved her all the same. No, you should not drink all of that Tequila and wander off on your own in TJ. No you should not let Ryan run off to Chino with that knocked-up hussy ex girlfriend of his. No, you should not start hanging out with badass Volchok (played by Cam Gigandet) who'll inevitably lead you off a cliff towards your untimely death, leaving your collective teen audience in absolute convulsions as we watch Ryan pull you from the wreckage to the emotive tones of Halleluljah. Good grief that was hard going. The flashbacks, oh the flashbacks. If you were an OC fan, watch this video and you'll surely well up once again. I just did. *sniff sniff*.
Anyhoo, since her days on The OC, we've lost track of what Mischa's been up to. She got stuck for a DUI, we know that much. And she appeared on stage at the Gaiety theatre too, but it wasn't worth writing home about. She's had a few roles in music videos and a few roles in movies but nothing to really kick her career post-teenage-TV into gear. Could the news that she's been cast in indie movie Fast Life be the ticket? Here's hoping. Failing that, we've always got her turn as the dead girl in The Sixth Sense to remember.
As per Variety, Mischa will star here as 'an unimpressed young woman' in the movie by music video helmer Rock Jacobs. ""Fast Life" is centered around an ad exec who falls in with an unsavory fast money crowd, only to be drawn to its antithesis when introduced to an unimpressed young woman, portrayed by Barton."
