Mischa Barton looks toward the future

‘I was really excited that I get to die’ says the ‘OC’ starlet

Jeff Christensen / AP

Actress Mischa Barton is seen during MTV's "Total Request Live" in New York. Fox's "The O.C." closed its third season May 18 with a deadly twist. Marissa Cooper, played by Barton, was killed in a car crash.

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updated 6:25 p.m. ET May 22, 2006

NEW YORK - Mischa Barton says it was better to be killed in a car wreck on “The O.C.” than to leave the Fox teen drama in “one of those lame farewells.”

Barton’s character, Marissa Cooper, died in the arms of ex-boyfriend Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) after Ryan lost control of his sport utility vehicle and crashed. The third season’s closer aired last week.

“Well, I was really excited that I get to die, to be honest,” the 20-year-old actress tells Newsweek magazine in an interview. “I’ve done pretty much everything else with the character. It was better than one of those lame farewells.”

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Marissa had been central to “The O.C.” since the show’s debut in 2003. The Newport Beach teen had battled depression and drug and alcohol abuse, had a brief lesbian relationship and was expelled from her posh high school for shooting a man.

Although rumors flew in recent months that Barton was ready to leave the show, she says her departure was the producers’ decision.

“But I really think it’s best to do movies now,” says Barton, who co-stars with Hayden Christensen in “Guilty Pleasures,” slated for release next year.

“I was also thinking of spending a month in London, living there and taking a course in acting,” she says. “Sometimes it’s nice to go back to your roots.”

Will she ever return to “The O.C.” in a dream sequence?

“Oh, God. I hope not. That would be cheesy.”