Mischa Barton took three months to sign up for 'The Hills: New Beginnings'.
Mischa Barton
The 33-year-old actress has joined the cast of the rebooted MTV reality show but she admitted it wasn't an easy decision.
She said: "It wasn't an overnight decision.
"It was a process to even decide to do it.
"And by that, I mean three months thinking about it."
Mischa hopes she can show who she "really" is on the show, particularly because some people still get her mixed up with her 'The O.C.' character, Marissa Cooper - who was killed off at the end of the third season of the show - and she used to find that "insulting".
Asked why she signed up, she said: "There's always been a bit of mystery surrounding me.
"And people not really knowing, quote unqote, who Mischa really is.
"And sometimes it gets a little old, answering those questions."
About her time on 'The O.C.', she added: "Strangely, lines got blurred over the years anyway, with people not really remembering which was which.
"I used to get really insulted. I'd be like, 'I died!'"
Mischa - who suffered a breakdown in 2009 - relocated from New York to Los Angeles for 'The Hills' and explained the cameras will see her trying to reignite her acting career.
She told Grazia magazine: "You see some of my relocating back to Los Angeles after having taken some time off and I really stepped away to the East Coast to a much more normal life.
"I was in upstate New York, in a very, very relaxed and real environment...
"There's something about the business that you love and hate.
"Los Angeles is so intense and you have to be in the right frame of mind to get into the audition game. "And I suppose that's sort of what you see me beginning to do, which is to try and get back into that."
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