OC fans have expressed their strong opinions about Ben McKenzie dating his co-star Mischa Barton when he was 25 and she was 17.
The actress, now 38, said the initial romance paved a “complicated” path for her early in her time on the popular Fox teen drama.
Ben and Mischa dated while their respective characters, Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood, were romantically linked in the series’ storyline.
The romance wasn’t “just on screen,” Mischa said Wednesday in an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, adding that “it was a little complicated for me.”
On social media platform X, fans criticized Ben for dating Mischa when he was an adult and she was a teenager.
OC fans have expressed their strong opinions about Ben McKenzie dating his co-star Mischa Barton when he was 25 and she was 17.
Ben and Mischa dated while their respective characters, Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood, were romantically linked in the series’ storyline.
One wrote: ‘This is disgusting and very sad. The case of too many child stars
Another said: “This whole Mischa and Ben story is crazy, she was a baby like she was a nasty man.”
Barton told podcast host Alex Cooper that his “first” romance was with McKenzie, adding: “I had no idea what I was doing.”
“I think that also got things started on the wrong foot, because it was like, you know, people get hooked on these shows and whatever, these things happen, but it was like that, we all jumped into it very quickly.” .
Barton appeared in 76 episodes of the series between 2003 and 2006, while McKenzie appeared in 92 episodes of the show between 2003 and 2007. Other series regulars included Rachel Bilson, Melinda Clarke, Kelly Rowan, Peter Gallagher and Adam Brody.
Barton said he was inexperienced in many facets of life coming into the series.
“I came into it as a virgin, a child, really feeling like I needed to grow up quickly,” Barton said, noting that she was the youngest member of the cast at the time, which created a dynamic that “was a little complicated.” for everyone.’
She said: “Acting with people older than me was a bit like, ‘Oh wow. They know what they’re doing.'”
“And there will be relationships on this show and you’ll have to play that role, and I didn’t really feel prepared for that, because I was always a late bloomer in school and hadn’t really dated.”
On social media platform X, fans criticized Ben for dating Mischa when he was an adult and she was a teenager.
Barton said he felt like he “needed to catch up” with his elders in terms of experiences.
“I was experiencing all my firsts and I was very young and my mom was on set and… I just needed a lot more attention in that sense,” Barton said on the podcast. ‘They were many of my first times, let’s put it that way.
“And that really separated me from them a little bit, in the sense that I wasn’t still living alone in Los Angeles.”
Barton said things got even more complicated after she and McKenzie broke up, as they had started dating “from the beginning” since the show began.
She recalled the period: ‘I felt overwhelmed and unprepared for any of it. I remember them saying, “Mischa disappeared with Ben and she’s only 17 and a half, 18,” and the producers went to my parents and said, it was kind of an ordeal.
She continued, “That was at the beginning of the show, before we were even halfway through the season, so there was a lot going on there.” That show…so many things happened in three seasons.’
McKenzie and his wife Morena Baccarin, 44, whom he met working on the series Gotham, exchanged vows in June 2017.
They are parents of two children: daughter Frances Laiz, seven years old, and son Arthur, two. Baccarin is also the mother of her 10-year-old son Julius, from her previous marriage to director Austin Chick.
Barton told podcast host Alex Cooper that his “first” romance was with McKenzie, adding: “I had no idea what I was doing.”
McKenzie and his wife Morena Baccarin, 44, were photographed at the Gotham Awards in New York last year.
Barton appeared in 76 episodes of the series between 2003 and 2006.
Barton has been critical of the environment on the set of the Fox series, telling E! News in a May 2021 interview that he faced “sort of general harassment from some of the men on set” during his time on the show.
“It’s a little complicated,” Barton told the outlet. “It started pretty early because it had a lot to do with Rachel being added at the last minute as, after the first season, a series regular and equalizing everyone’s salary, and kind of general harassment from some of the men.” on that guy’s set.” of feeling really shit.
“But, you know, I also loved the show and I had to build my own walls and ways of dealing with that and the fame that specifically came my way. Just dealing with the amount of invasion it was having on my personal life, I felt very unprotected, I guess is the best way to put it.’
Dailymail.com has contacted McKenzie’s representatives for comment on this story.