Mischa Barton has compared ‘Dancing With the Stars’ to ‘The Hunger Games’.
The former ‘O.C.’ actress was voted off the celebrity dance competition after just three weeks earlier this year but she insists she wasn’t disappointed because the "popularity contest" was so "awful" and she didn’t have a good relationship with her professional partner Artem Chigvintsev.
She told The Ringer: "Ugh, I had no idea it would be so bad. I got told off by my dancer.
"I was supposed to control the costumes, I was told that I could do the design aspect of it, that’s kind of the reason why I agreed to do it.
"That didn’t happen. It wasn’t collaborative like a choreographer on a film set. … I was so confused by it. It was like ‘The Hunger Games’. It was all a popularity contest. It was awful. I was so glad to get kicked off."
The 30-year-old actress was arrested for driving under the influence in 2007 and sectioned two years later, and she thinks it is much more difficult to be famous, and to handle fame, than people think.
Asked how Hollywood has changed since she first found success, she said: "The business has changed so much. It’s just so crazy out there. I’ve been acting since I was eight years old and then did the theatre.
"My first movies were like old-school; I did Richard Attenborough’s last film … I came from the days of real film.
"There was no digital. It takes a second to switch your brain over to that; it did for me. Now these young people think it’s so easy to be famous. It isn’t easy. They think it’s so easy to handle fame. It isn’t."
Mischa can currently be seen co-hosting motoring show ‘Joyride’ but is gearing up for a period of reinvention.
She said: "I keep thinking of this thing I heard, that if you don’t reinvent yourself every seven years, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
"I think that’s interesting. I think it’s really hard to do - I think it’s extremely scary for women especially, every seven years, but I’m kind of at that crossroads again. It’s about time for me again to reinvent myself and do something different."
Mischa Barton slams ‘awful’ Dancing With the Stars
