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Peter Gallagher is “grateful” Mischa Barton is “still alive.”
The 69-year-old actor spoke about Barton, who was his co-star in “The O.C.,” revealing the level of fame she was dealing with at an early age “can kill you.”
Barton, now 38, was just 16 when she was cast as Marissa Cooper in Josh Schwartz’s early ’00s teen drama that launched her into A-list status overnight. Years later, the Hollywood it-girl went on a public downward spiral, which included a DUI arrest in 2007 and being hospitalized on a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold in 2009.
“I’ve always felt very protective of her,” Gallagher, who played Sandy Cohen in the hit show, said of Barton in an interview with The Independent published on Oct. 27. “First fame is toxic. First fame can kill you.”
The “A Bad Moms Christmas” actor went on to explain, “She was 16 years old when she started working with us, so just the fact that she’s still alive, I’m just so grateful.”
The Post has reached out to Barton’s rep for comment.
The star has opened up about her struggles in the past. She once compared her 2009 “breakdown” to Angelina Jolie’s character in the 1999 film, “Girl, Interrupted.”
“It was a full-on breakdown. It was terrifying. Straight out of Girl, Interrupted,” Barton told People in a 2013 cover story titled, “My Hollywood Nightmare.”
However, she clarified, “I was never suicidal. I was just overworked and depressed.”
Barton revealed she was “under enormous pressure” during that time and got carried away with the lifestyle.
“We thought, ‘Work hard, play hard,’” she told the outlet, adding, “But one slip of the tongue in a heightened moment and you find yourself in that situation.”
Barton said that “nothing could prepare [my parents] to have their children jump into the overtly sexualized and crazy world of L.A.”
Comparing it to “a train I could not get off of,” she explained, “When you’re young, you can do it, but after a while, it’s going to come crashing down on you. I needed to be on my own and get healthy.”
Barton shared that meant trying “to be balanced,” adding, “I needed to take this time for me … I’ve learned a lot. I’m stronger now, and I’m excited for what’s ahead.”
However, getting her head space right didn’t stop trolls from attacking her with comments about her weight.
“It was always, ‘She’s too skinny, she must be sick,’” Barton recalled. “Then it was, ‘She’s too big.’ I was never the right weight.”
Last year, the actress admitted she “fully prepared for that level of fame.”
“You can go to therapy every day for the rest of your life,” Barton told The Sunday Times in Oct. 2023. “But there’s just a certain amount of trauma [from] all that I went through, particularly in my early 20s, that just doesn’t go away overnight.”