British-born Mischa Barton moved to the US age five where, age nine, she made her screen debut on American soap opera All My Children, and, age 11, her cinema debut in 1997 fantasy drama Lawn Dogs opposite Sam Rockwell. You can then play “spot the young Mischa Barton” in a number of films. In the famous scene in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant hasn’t seen the film and then has to interview the cast at the press junket, it is Barton who plays the young child actor who has already appeared in 22 films, her favourite with Leonardo DiCaprio. (“Is he your favourite Italian director?” asks Hugh.) In The Sixth Sense, she is the young ghost who has been poisoned by her mother that Bruce Willis sees.
Barton starred in 1999 US indie crime thriller Pups and 2001 Canadian drama Lost and Delirious. It was her stint playing complex and ultimately self-destructing teenager Marissa Cooper in the first three seasons of The OC that propelled Barton into the stratosphere, although she has since stated how much she struggled with worldwide fame as a 17-year-old.
Richard Attenborough then cast her in 2007 romantic drama Closing the Ring. She also plays an ex-head girl in the 2007 reboot of St Trinian’s with Gemma Arterton, Lily Cole and Juno Temple. Since then, Barton seems to have found peace starring in indie films such as Assassination of a High School President opposite Bruce Willis, and with Martin Sheen in Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, a drama based on the Bhopal gas tragedy. She’s also found a niche in horror films, with roles in Homecoming, Apartment 1303, Sibling, The Basement, The Toybox, Oujia House and 2020’s Spree.
In 2012, she was in the video to Everybody’s on the Run by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. In 2023, she was introduced as a new character for the relaunch of Neighbours, where Ramsay Street couldn’t be more different to Orange County. Now, to celebrate her new murder mystery Invitation to a Murder – out on digital on 30 December – Barton is here to take your questions. Please post them below by 5pm Tuesday 17 December and we’ll print her answers soon in Film&Music.
