Rachel Discusses Her Journey and The OC
Published November 1st, 2006 in General OC News.
There are certain things that Rachel Bilson can say that if you or I tried, we couldn’t sell.
Take, for example, Bilson’s reply to a question about whether she shares any of the campus radical political beliefs discovered by her character early in the fourth season of “The O.C.”
“I am a big believer in all of this stuff and I think that they’ve done such a good job with everything that she believes in,” Bilson tells reporters. “I have a pet bunny on the show, so that helps the awareness of cruelty to animals. I don’t eat pigs because I love them, so there are definitely some similarities.”
I’ll say it again: You or I could not say that we don’t eat pigs because we love them and expect to get away with it. Bilson can. Perhaps that’s why she was also able to temporarily steal an older man from his pregnant girlfriend in this summer’s sudsy “The Last Kiss” without seeming like a harpy. And perhaps that’s why Bilson is ready to step out as the female lead on “The O.C.” this fall in the aftermath of the moderately tragic death of Mischa Barton’s Marissa Cooper.
Of course, Bilson — she of the pet bunny and love for pigs — would never boast about taking control on the FOX teen soap.
“No, we definitely have a lot of strong single characters on our show,” she insists. “I would never think that my character is in that position because everyone does their fair share and has interesting story lines. We have a really good female cast, as well as male of course, but yes, I think everyone shares the limelight so to speak.”
Certainly, no character on “The O.C.” has evolved more than Bilson’s Summer Roberts. A ditzy background figure in the pilot, Summer quickly became a cast regular, one half of the show’s most beloved couple and a stealth intellect capable of acceptance at Brown. This season’s early episodes are a showcase for Bilson, as Summer deals with the death of her best friend.
“I really like the direction they sort of pointed her in,” Bilson says. “Dealing with her best friend’s death, she turns into sort of a tree hugger, which I think is nice to see on a TV show, especially with such a young audience that it might raise awareness and if they’re not aware of these things, it brings it to their attention and maybe they want to get involved. So I think it’s cool that it’s that way as opposed to cage fighting or something like that.”
In case you’re curious, cage fighting is Ryan’s (Ben McKenzie) far more character-appropriate response.
In addition to testing new emotional waters with Summer, Bilson is dealing with a suddenly hot film career. She’ll be pulling double-duty this fall zipping from the “O.C.” set to the Canadian shoot of the new Doug Liman franchise pic “Jumper.” That doesn’t mean, though, that Bilson is pointing herself in the direction of her post-”O.C.” career.
“We don’t know that it’s the final season,” Bilson says. “We’re just having a lot of fun and trying to make the best season we can and go from there. No one thinks it’s over and doesn’t want it to be over, because we have a really great thing and why would you want something like that to end? So we’re just doing the best we can and having fun doing it.”
The fun begins down in Orange County on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
Source: Daniel Fienberg, Zap2it.com
21 Responses to “Rachel Discusses Her Journey and The OC”
- 1 Trackback on Dec 23rd, 2006 at 11:22 pm
- 2 Trackback on Jan 3rd, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Regardless of her modestly and respect for her cast members, Rachel Bilson IS stepping up as “The New Queen Bee of The O.C.” as noted in her recent Cosmo cover. I’m in no way trying to knock any other member of a terrific cast, so let’s get that straight, but the transformation from the shallow party girl in Episode One of the first season to the current character of Summer we see today at Brown trying to deal in her own way with the loss of her best friend Marissa (Mischa Barton) is truly from one end of the spectrum to the other. The Producers decision to make Bilson a regular staring character early on was certainly a homerun for the show; not only since Summer brought her own spice to the Fantastic Four on screen but even more so as she takes the reins from Barton to lead the next phase of this hit T.V. phenomenon. The timing couldn’t be more perfect- a handful of staring roles on the big screen, a new look to boot, Yea, it’s safe to say Bilson is making the departure of Barton this season easier for fans to stomach. With her loyalty to the show, combined with an excellent performance by all in Episode One (The Avengers) of the new season, the road certainly looks bright for cast and crew as the fourth season get set to take center stage.
-Patrick Leonard
i agree with everything u said pat, can i call u pat? she has truly changed from the pilot and has stepped up to being “queen bee”
Hello Jon,
Check for more postings soon!
I am looking to do more reviews on new episodes, news and events here on the OC Blogger and hope to have updated my myspace page soon for people to contact me and read more if they would like. Tune in on Thursday!
- Patrick Leonard
i think that without marissa cooper in the show it wont be half as good but im looking forward to seeing what rachel bilson and her co workers produce!
but ryan as a cage fighter is just wrong!!!
hi all i have wtchd the oc season 4 episode 1 n i found it quite good. however jon like wot i sed a few mnths ago it isnt as gd as i fort it was. i was quite disapointed i wntd mre people 2 mention marissa. n i realise that it was set 5 months after the accident but i would have loved to seen flashbacks to what happened after marrissa died. sort of the way they do it in One Tree Hill if you know what i mean. marissa was a big character and was involved in everybodies life (in the show).i guess i wanted to see more mournin. like towards the end of the episode with summer nt wantin 2 go home or even realli stay in newport and ryan throwin away the photographs bt keepin the jumper. i do think that this season can easily get better n i am very intrigued to see whats goin to happen next. Plus summer looks well HOTTT even for a tree hugger lol.
I would like flashbacks. Maybe we will get some eventually. We will see. But if not, its ok. The four premiere is great. The rest of the season probably will be too. I’m really hoping it will be. I’ve loved all 3 seasons so far.
@ Micha
did u ever seen the new ep :S ?
apperently not cause cage fighting ryan is awesome. Seriously!
I watched epi. 4.01 i thought it was much better then most of season 3 , even though marissa is gone i think it will be a much better season because of everything that has happened in result to her death.
always complaining about marissa being death, just wait and see before you say make those nonsense comments!
I love rachel and summer is one of my favorite charater. but marissa was more then a character! and the show is just depressing with out her. the frist episode I cried the whole time?!!!! keep it up RACHEL!
After watching the season finale last spring of the O.C. i really didn’t know how the producers and Josh Schwartz could make it good anymore (loosing the second star of the show, and leading female character). But after much doubt, i can thankfully say that Josh has turned this show around and after watching the Avengers, I couldn’t believe how great it was. I can tell this season is really going to be something else, but as long as we got most of the main characters in the show, to be honest i wouldn’t care where it’s filmed (even though its called the O.C.).
Summer Roberts will be a lot more mature this season I can tell, and Rachel Bilson will bring a lot of character to her, making her that much more fun to watch. It’s really cool to see all the different actors maturing over the last three seasons of the O.C. and this season I can tell will have a lot of good acting. It’s just too bad we wont see Misha Barton sharing the same experiences with them all.
- Seth C.
I totally agree with everything you guys said. The show is definitly moving forward and I think it lived up well to all our expectations. It’s obvious that for the “die hard marissa fans” everything from now on will be depressing and probably change the way they see the show but is it just me or they really did make an extremely good job sorting out her departure?
I thought the new episode was one of the best of all seasons so far, it really touched me and it proved to be just what most people thought wasn’t possible, The O.C. moving on from marissa’s death.
It’s a return to the glory some believed was lost and the recognition that the show deserves for others.
For me its fairly simple. I’ll never stop watching.
Rui is a true oc fan for loving the first episode. i loved it too. i forgot that summer is now the leading female role!!! i hope that means more summer/seth drama and they are more centered cause i really think summer is a much better actress than marissa. yay now im excited to see where summer will go in the show.
rachel bilson has always been the number 1 girl in the OC for me.i found marissa quiet annoying.watch out for willa holland who i think is going to be the next big thing to come out of orange county.she is fantastic
I think Rachel Bilson is awesome but everyone should stop going on about Marissa being annoying. She was the main character and she will be hugely missed. I love Rachel as much as the next person but Marissa is still apart of the show even if shes dead. Marissa was the classic american even though most people think Summer is one of the funniest characters on the show. Love the OC 4eva… s2…s2
This season is no where near going to be as good as the other seasons because marissa is gone! I love Rachel Bilson and she is definatly different but its ok. Marissa will always be remebered and like they said, she is still apart of the show forever! She was the main character. But I think everyone must go on, especially ryan and summer.
LOVE THE O.C FOREVER!!!!!!! ITS THE BEST
OMG! Christy wat a wonderful and thought ful speech couldn’t have said it better myself
RYAN I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
THNX AMBER………YES I LOVE ADAM BRODY AND BEN MCKENZIE THEY R SOOOOOOOOOO HOT!!!!!!!!!
I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HHav3e you seen his abbs