I don’t mind nudity. It depends on the film and if I trust the director and if the context is emotional or just sexual

On the surface, Mischa Barton is your typical American sweetheart – a perfect, lollipop-sucking cutie who could charm the most miserly of men. But beneath that candy-coated exterior lies a girl as wild as her OC character, Marissa Cooper. A recent run-in with LA cops for illegal driving and drug possession only adds to her growing bad-girl persona, making this London-born 22-year-old one of the edgiest women in Hollywood. One of the sexiest too – just look at these pics…

You had two big films released at the end of last year, and a host more in the pipeline. Are you excited to be back in the limelight?

I’m happy that I’ve been working constantly since The OC, and that my career is going the way I want it. As an actor, all I wanted was creative freedom – to be able to pick and choose movies. I couldn’t be happier.

Is it true you were discovered when you performed a monologue about tortoises at summer camp?

That’s how it happened. I remember going to camp with my older sister, who completely ditched me because she was 16 and I was eight and I was uncool to have around. I ended up doing all these monologues, and it paid off, because some agent came up to my mom and said I should try acting.

Are you surprised you haven’t been typecast because of The OC?

My theory on why I wasn’t typecast, other than being shockingly lucky, is because Marissa was so all over the place. They originally wanted me to play her like a Valley girl – a dumb blonde airhead. But I went against that. She was an alcoholic and into this and that…

Like that lesbian kiss.

There was that. She was a multitude of people, and that opened me up as an actor, even though it was hard for me at the time to handle that character. But it worked in the end, because I got to do so many emotionally gutsy things.

Were you surprised by the frenzied attention surrounding Marissa’s lesbianism?

A little, yeah. It’s weird to think that The OC was only four years of my life. It seems like so much more, because it was such a phenomenon. But at least we didn’t have to go 10 years like Beverly Hills, 90210.

Marissa was crazy: she shot her ex-boyfriend’s brother, got expelled and battled booze. How similar were you as a teen?

Very different. Even if I was a precocious teenager, it’s a New York vs LA thing. I never experienced the ‘anything goes’ chaos we sold on The OC. I could relate on a fundamental level, in terms of the adolescent pain and anguish these characters were going through, but Marissa was a nutcase. I didn’t have much in common with her. In New York I’d want to go out at 15 or 16, but I got it out of my system.

Do you still have run-ins with crazy OC fans?

Yeah, of course. That’s one of the best things about being on a television show. People genuinely loved the show, and they cried when Marissa died. Hysterical people would come up to me on the street and tell me how devastating it was for them.

Did you cry when she died in the car crash?

You have no idea how much fun I had doing that. I was on the set, yelling, ‘More blood! More blood!’ I wanted a car crash. The writers were telling me, ‘Maybe Marissa should sail off into the sunset.’ And I was like, ‘No! Certain death.’ She needed to go out with a bang.

In the indie film The Oh In Ohio you get your kit off. Did you have any reservations?

Not really. I take it project by project. In that film it was really quite necessary. You don’t see full boobs or anything. I was wearing underwear and pasties [that’ s nipple covers not pies]… not to be boring. I don’t mind nudity. I just don’t do it that often. Well, you do see me topless in Closing The Ring. But I would never do full body.

Never?

Come to think of it, I did let Richard Attenborough get a brief behind shot in Closing The Ring. But that was it. It depends on the film and if I trust the director and if the context is emotional or just sexual.

Now we all want to see Closing The Ring!

There are many better reasons to see that movie than whether I’m naked in it. You know, sometimes that’s all people talk about…

There’s been talk that you’ll be cast as Supergirl in the new Supergirl film. What qualifies you for the role, other than you’d look great in a leotard?

Besides the skin-tight leotard? Hmm. It would be pretty awesome. But everybody in Hollywood goes up for those films. I haven’t been offered anything.

You seem attracted to bad boys. Is the way to your heart by getting into a fight?