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Mischa Barton: 'The Hills: New Beginnings' shows the 'real me'

By Annie Martin
Mischa Barton said she joined "The Hills: New Beginnings" to make friends and a new identity for herself. File Photo by David Silpa/UPI
Mischa Barton said she joined "The Hills: New Beginnings" to make friends and a new identity for herself. File Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo

May 23 (UPI) -- Mischa Barton says The Hills: New Beginnings shows a new, authentic side of herself.

The 33-year-old actress said in an interview with The New York Times published Thursday she joined the MTV series to make friends and a new identity for herself.

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"[I hoped] to situate myself in a different part of my career, make a new friend group and move out of the stale typecasting I had gotten myself into," she said.

Barton is best known for playing Marissa Cooper on the Fox series The O.C. The show takes place in Orange County, Calif., where the MTV reality series Laguna Beach and The Hills are also set.

"People seem to have always associated me with one thing, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to get to see the real me," Barton said.

The Hills had a six-season run from 2006 to 2010. The Hills: New Beginnings features several returning cast members, including Heidi Montag, Whitney Port, Audrina Patridge and Stephanie Pratt.

"It was just funny in the beginning because they do have a lot of drama and history that obviously I'm not privy to," Barton said.

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Barton became close with Patridge and also found Pratt and Jason Wahler surprisingly "chill."

"I think what's really interesting is the people I was most afraid of going into this turned out to be the easiest people to deal with, so I found that to be really funny, and it's an obvious life lesson," she said.

The Hills: New Beginnings premieres June 24 on MTV. Barton previously teased drama to come in the April issue of Cosmopolitan.

"I sometimes get in over my head," she said. "I didn't really consider the fact that they're all such close friends. They're family girls. They all have husbands or ex-husbands and babies."

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