It seems like only yesterday Mischa Barton was just a teenager hanging out in The O.C. But in her latest movie, she's playing a mom. Yes, Marissa Cooper is officially all grown up.
According to a press release, Barton is starring in the straight-to-VOD/DVD release Operator as an emergency dispatcher whose young daughter (whom she had with her estranged husband — who just so happens to be a senior police officer) is kidnapped. And what the kidnapper (played by Ving Rhames) wants Barton's character to do will leave many others in peril. This forces her to make the tough decision: Save her daughter or save the city? Sounds like Barton's getting a chance to take on her greatest foe since Oliver Trask.
From the looks of the trailer, Barton spends most of the movie on the phone, but she does get to say the kick-ass line, "You're going to be very sorry you ever dialed 911!"
While it seems like this is the first movie from Barton in quite awhile, the 29-year-old actress has actually shot 22 films since The O.C. ended in 2007 — eight of those in his year alone, with two additional movies in the works for 2016. But it's no surprise you may have missed Barton's return, since most of these films have been small-budget foreign or straight-to-video movies that were released with little fanfare or promotion.
Barton places some of the blame for her post-O.C. acting slump — which, as she told People in 2013, included a "full-on breakdown" due to excessive partying in 2009 and resulted in a stay in a psychiatric ward — on her mother, Nuala Barton. The actress filed a lawsuit against her mom in April of this year, claiming she was a "greedy stage mother" who withheld money and exploited Mischa for her own financial gain.