Rachel Bilson, Melinda Clarke REACT to co star Mischa Barton's 'bullying' comments on leaving The O.C.

Actress Mischa Barton recently took The O.C. fans by surprise when she candidly opened up about her unexpected exit from season three back in 2006. For the unversed, The O.C. was a super hit show from the early aughts which later found more popularity on Netflix and has four seasons. Mischa, a teenager back then, revealed in her interview of the extreme pressures she faced as well as bullying on set.

Mischa's co-stars Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke have now opened up on how they feel about her comments. On the 'Welcome to the OC, Bitches!' podcast, Rachel and Melinda spoke to host Danny Pellegrino about their reactions once they learned of Mischa's recent interview with E! News.

Rachel, who played Summer on the show, said, "You know Melinda and I were talking immediately after it came out. And we were just like, ‘Wait, what?'" 

Melinda, who played the notorious Julie, chimed in and said, "Someone who is 16, 17, 18..that amount of hours of work, pressure, at such a young age..at best, you're exhausted. And at worst, it's overwhelming and chaotic so, it kinda breaks my heart a little.. We knew there was a lot of pressure on her but if it was really that bad of an experience, that's not right for any young person. But, some of the comments were very, um, perplexing to me, so I don't know what the truth is about that. I do know that, yes, this was an enormous amount of pressure for her. And for everybody."

In her interview, addressing her experience on the show, Mischa had said, "It started pretty early on because it had a lot to do with them adding Rachel in last minute as, after the first season, a series regular and evening out everybody's pay—and sort of general bullying from some of the men on set that kind of felt really s--tty."

Reacting to Mischa's comments of adding her in "last minute", Rachel Bilson called it false. "That's misinformation. Where is she going with this and what is she trying to say? I would actually like to talk to her and find out what her experience was from her perspective, because I saw things a little differently." 

Speaking of Mischa's bullying comments, Rachel added, "I mean, I'm definitely pretty confused by most of it. And I don't know who she's referring to because I didn't personally witness any of that. It's hard for me to speculate because I like to speak from truth. But, we can only imagine that it was pretty, like I said, overwhelming and just how to navigate these waters at that age."

The O.C. starred other famous personalities such as Adam Brody, Ben Mckenzie, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan and Tate Donovan among others. 

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