Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, executive producers on The O.C., discuss their regret over killing off Mischa Barton’s character, Marissa Cooper.
The O.C’s Creator Reflects On Marissa’s Death
In an interview with Vanity Fair to promote the upcoming book Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History, which releases November 28, Schwartz said: “We talk about it quite bluntly [in the book]. It’s something that we regret, and looking back on it, we wish we could have come up with a different solution. We didn’t see an alternative path at the time, which is why we went down that road. But obviously in hindsight, there were lots of other ways we could have written the character off the show—and given Mischa the break that she needed and wanted—that still would’ve allowed for that character to return.”
Schwartz, who created the series, continued: “When Marissa shot Trey, everyone was very upset in a way that was fun to experience. They were shocked, and I heard from parents who said their kids were crying about what had happened. Ultimately it was the reaction you wanted to get out of the audience. And when we saw the reaction after Marissa died from that audience, it did not feel good. It did not feel like that audience had been served or respected in the way that we always wanted and aimed to. Immediately, we had regret at that point.”
Savage added: “We were also under tremendous pressure to do something with that level of drama. Killing a series regular came down from the top. If we wanted a season four, we’d have to do something like that.”
Marissa was killed off in The O.C.’s Season 3 finale, with the character dying in a car accident. The series ran from 2003 to 2007 on Fox and also starred Ben McKenzie, Adam Brody, Rachel Bilson, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, and Melinda Clarke.
