TV

The 'Fleishman Is in Trouble' actor admits he hated the later episodes of his FOX television show and never made any attempt to 'mask' his loathing at all.

• Dec 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Adam Brody confesses he "openly mocked" the later seasons of "The O.C." in front of the cast and crew. The 43-year-old actor played heartthrob Seth Cohen on the Fox teen drama - which ran for four seasons between 2004 and 2007 - and there have been several claims about his behaviour on set in the new tome, "Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History".

While the majority of the cast was "lacklustre" towards the end of the series, Adam's attitude was so difficult to disguise that they had to write it into the script - with Seth even getting addicted to pot. In the book, he admits he is "not proud" of how he acted.

He said, "I was polite to everyone. I liked the directors, and the crew and I got on really well and I didn't keep people waiting. I would never scream or yell at anyone, or say anything [redacted] mean. But I think I very much let my distaste for the later episodes be known. I didn't mask that at all, and I'm sure I openly mocked it a bit. So I'm not proud of that."

Series creator Josh Schwartz said, "By the time we got to Season Three, we were all burned out. We'd made so many episodes so quickly, and I think it wasn't a happy set for long stretches of it. Quite frankly, everybody was over it at that point. And I was one of those people who was over it at that point. It had been a great ride, but it had been a volatile ride."

Executive producer Stephanie Savage said the cast - also including Ben McKenzie (Ryan Atwood), Rachel Bilson (Summer Roberts), and Mischa Barton (Marissa Cooper) - got "to be a bit petulant with directors, having an attitude, reading a book during rehearsal instead of paying attention."

Melinda Clarke, who played Julie Cooper, corroborated, "We were very aware in Season Three of how disliked the scripts were, especially by the kids. Adam and Ben were like, 'We're grown men and we're playing in high school still.' They didn't really ever talk to me personally about it, but that was the general understanding on set."