Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke Address Mischa Barton's 'Perplexing' Claims About Her Departure from 'The O.C.'

Melinda Clarke and Rachel Bilson are breaking their silence on Mischa Barton's recent comments that "bullying" behind the scenes ultimately led to her departure from The O.C.

During Tuesday's episode of their podcast, Welcome to the O.C., Bitches!, the former co-stars teased an upcoming conversation with comedian Danny Pellegrino in which they discussed Barton's "perplexing" interview with E! Online last month.

"You know Melinda and I were talking immediately after [the interview] came out," Bilson admitted to Pellegrino. "And we were just like, 'Wait, what?'"

Clarke added that, while she and Bilson can talk about their own experiences with honesty, they don't want to speak for anyone else.

"Someone who is 16, 17, 18 — that amount of hours of work, pressure, at such a young age — at best, you're exhausted," she explained. "And at worst, it's overwhelming and chaotic so, it kinda breaks my heart a little to know [that]."

She continued, "We knew there was a lot of pressure on her but if it was really that bad of an experience, that's not right for any young person. But, some of the comments were very perplexing to me. So, I don't know what the truth is about that. I do know that, yes, this was an enormous amount of pressure for her. And for everybody."

Bilson did try to set the record straight about Barton's claim that talks about her exit began after Bilson's promotion to series regular — or, as Barton put it, when the producers started "evening out everybody's pay."

"[That's] actually completely false and not what happened," Bilson said. "So, it starting out that way, I was like 'That's misinformation. Where are we going with this and what are we trying to say?'"

She added that she and Clarke chose to address Barton's interview "in hopes that Mischa would hear us talk about it and would be willing to come join us on the show so we could hear her entire perspective and what she is saying she experienced."

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In May, Barton told E! that she left The O.C. because "there were people on that set that were very mean to me."

"It wasn't, like, the most ideal environment for a young, sensitive girl who's also been thrust into stardom to have to put up with," she continued.

"But, you know, I also loved the show and had to build up my own walls and ways of getting around dealing with that and the fame that was thrust specifically at me. Just dealing with like the amount of invasion I was having in my personal life, I just felt very unprotected, I guess is the best way to put it."

Barton returned to TV screens in 2019, when she joined the cast of the reality show reboot The Hills: New Beginnings. "I just want people to be able to identify with me," she told PEOPLE at the time. "But I'm also a very in your face person. I don't have trouble with confrontation!"