Rachel Bilson apologises to The OC co-star for ‘a**hole’ behaviour on set

The OC’s Rachel Bilson has apologised to her co-star and director Tate Donovan for being an “a**hole” on set.

The teen drama, which ran from 2003 to 2007, followed a group of young people and their families in the wealthy, upper-class neighbourhood of Newport Beach, Orange County, California.

Donovan – who starred as Jimmy Cooper and later served as a director – made an appearance on Bilson and Melinda Clarke’s Welcome to the OC B****es podcast on Tuesday (25 May), during which Bilson said she felt she owed him an apology.

“You went on to direct us on The OC and I know some of us kids were little a**holes,” said Bilson, who starred as Summer throughout the series.

“And I think that speaks to that whole unaware, young, youthful, ignorant… just idiots. And I hope I wasn’t as bad as it’s come off.”

Donovan responded: “You can’t help but believe all the sort of hype everyone gets caught up in, especially when you’re young.”

“I thought you were so wonderful and such a wonderful director and an amazing human,” replied Bilson. “So If I ever added to any of the a**holeness, I want to apologise on the record here right now.”

Later in the podcast, Donovan recalled one moment that he shared with Bilson on set that he said stuck with him.

Donovan said that it was his first scene directing the actor and that he was giving her notes that she needed to look more upset because the script said her character was in the middle of a breakup but “didn’t want to insult you by reminding you of that”.

“You go, ‘Tate, I don’t read scripts. I smoke pot,’” he recalled, prompting laughter from Bilson and Clarke.

Donovan has previously spoken out about how “tough” he found working with the show’s younger cast members when he returned to the series to direct.

He told Vulture in 2013: “By the time I started to direct, the kids on the show had developed a really bad attitude. They just didn’t want to be doing the show anymore.”

The director added that “they were very tough to work with” but that he knows “how it is with young actors – and I know because I was one of them once”.

Mischa Barton (Marissa) was just 17 when she joined the show, Chris Carmack (Luke) was 22, Benjamin McKenzie (Ryan) was 24, Adam Brody (Seth) was 23 and Rachel Bilson (Summer) was 21.

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