Peter Gallagher on Why He’s Grateful His ‘The O.C.’ Co-Star Mischa Barton Is “Still Alive”

Peter Gallagher reveals which of his former co-stars on The O.C. he’s “very protective” of.

The actor, who played Sandy Cohen in the hit teen drama, recently opened up to The Independent about the negative impact of fame and how he always found himself looking out for Mischa Barton, who played Marissa Cooper on the show centered on wealthy teens living in Newport Beach, California.

“I’ve always felt very protective of her,” Gallagher said. “First fame is toxic. First fame can kill you. 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.”

Gallagher and Barton worked alongside each other throughout the first three seasons of the show, which ran from 2003 to 2007. Marissa was the love interest of Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), who was taken in by the Cohen family, including Peter, Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and Kirsten Cohen (Kelly Rowan). (Spoiler alert!) However, Barton’s character didn’t return for season four, as Marissa was killed in a car crash in the season three finale.

Following Barton’s quick rise to fame, the actress faced several challenges, including a DUI arrest in 2007. She was later hospitalized in 2009 due to career and stress-related reasons.

Gallagher may feel protective of Barton because his own rise to fame was much more gradual and with less scrutiny. The actor got his start on Broadway, playing Danny Zuko in Grease in 1978.

“It was a great time to be young and doing Grease because the critics didn’t come,” he told the outlet. “I did 500 performances of that show. It wasn’t going to make you famous. It wasn’t going to ruin you. Nobody was reviewing it, but it was a great training ground.”

Last year, Barton opened up to The Sunday Times about the “trauma” she endured working in the industry when she was a teenager.

“You can go to therapy every day for the rest of your life,” she said at the time. “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.”