Summer Of Love

From The Mail On Sunday:

Her role as rich bitch Summer Roberts in hit TV drama The OC has turned Rachel Bilson into one of Hollywood's hottest stars. She tells Lucy Broadbent why she t ried to hide her love for the star of the show Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody are holding hands across a table in a coffee shop in Hollywood. They talk earnestly, sip lattes and occasionally flip through the newspapers. To anyone who has never watched The OC, television's latest cultural phenomenon, they look like any other laid-back Californian couple. But for those of us who are addicted to the compelling drama series, this is a surreal moment. This is TV come to life.

On screen, Bilson and Brody play the witty, romantic couple Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. They are together in real life, too, and to see them misty-eyed, in the flesh, is, as one patron at the coffee shop observes, 'kind of unreal'. You find yourself expecting to hear one of Summer's caustic wisecracks, or at least to witness a few fireworks between them.

Instead, Bilson is all smiles and graciousness.

She is also too unassuming and reserved to ever be mistaken for the overindulged teenage have-it-all she plays. In fact, she is so well-mannered and low-key it's hard to imagine she's even an actress.

'Adam just came along to keep me company,' she says, after introducing him and leaving him sitting at the table. She settles herself on an empty sofa on the other side of the room. 'He's going to read the papers while we talk.'

Bilson's role in The OC has turned her into one of Hollywood's fastest-rising stars. Her face stares out from billboards in capital cities across the world, and every week more than 20 million viewers tune in to watch her and the rest of the cast reveal what it is like to grow up rich and gorgeous in southern California.

Besides being locked into a six-year contract with the series, she has just finished filming The Last Kiss, a remake of the Italian film L'Ultimo Bacio, with Zach Braff, Tom Wilkinson and Blythe Danner, and more film roles are to come.

'I haven't quite got used to this level of fame yet,' she says, talking softly and wrapping tiny, manicured fingers around a huge coffee mug. 'I don't know how you get used to it. It's so crazy. To look up and see your face on a huge billboard, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, I have to take a picture of that." It really is the craziest feeling. And every day this show seems to grow more and more. I'm not sure that anyone expected it to take off this way.

Some days I have to pinch myself.' Bilson is more beautiful in real life than she appears on TV. Her face is mapped out in perfect angles, her eyes are dark and deep-set, and with her fresh complexion, she seems younger than her 23 years. She's dressed in jeans and a T-shirt not a single designer accoutrement that her TV alter ego might wear.

'I'm really nothing like Summer,' she says. 'The problem with a soap is that people think I really am her. In the first season, people would come up to me and say, .

"You're such a bitch!" I'd say, "I'm not her. I swear to you, I'm not."All the materialistic, superficial stuff is just not me.

'But I will say that, in the second series, Summer got to be much nicer. I think that was Josh Schwartz [the show's creator] adding a bit of me to the character, maybe the goofy, funny stuff. I like to think I've got a good sense of humour Maybe Adam would say different.' She looks over to where he is studiously reading the papers, and laughs.

Bilson describes working on The OC with the kind of idealism with which a student might describe college life. 'The atmosphere is really friendly,' she says.

'There's a real sense of family. There are some days when you don't get along with someone, just as it would be in a family, but when it comes down to it, we all love each other and care about each other a lot.' There is an innocence about Bilson.

She's so nice, in the cosy, sweet and sugary meaning of the word, that the heartless will want to doubt her sincerity.

But it appears that she is guileless. She insists she never gets jealous of her costar, Mischa Barton, whose face is in the papers possibly even more than her own.

'I'm just happy for the exposure anyone gets,' she says without hesitation.

'Mischa does get a lot of attention, but she's so beautiful and I think that's great.

I'm just happy for anyone on the show who's achieved success through it.

I'm not sure I have any favourite colleagues, but I really look up to Kelly Rowan, who plays Kirsten. They're all good people.' Does she have any favourite episodes of the show? 'Oh my goodness, it's so hard to say,' she says. 'When you make so many, they all sort of merge into one another. One of my least favourite episodes was the one in which I dressed up as Wonder Woman. I don't like dressing up in silly costumes.' Bilson's romance with Brody began during the first series, although they kept it secret for a while. 'I think everyone frowns on people having relationships in the workplace, whether it's an office building or a TV studio, so we were a little quiet about it at first,' says Bilson. 'Also, you want things to develop on your own without everyone watching. I think that's what everyone wants, isn't it? Unless, of course, you're Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.' Like those recently engaged A-listers, Bilson already knows what it is like to have a personal romance become the subject of media scrutiny. And already there are reports that she and Brody are engaged. She holds up her hand.

'See, no ring,' she says. 'Definitely not engaged.' She laughs again. It's the confident laugh of someone who is not that concerned about what the papers say.

'We actually met before the show began, through mutual friends,' she says.

'When I saw him on the set, I was pleased because it meant there was someone there .

I already knew. It was comforting to have him there. On the first day we chatted about our characters. People ask us now if it's difficult to work together. But generally I don't see how anyone in the business can date someone who is not in the business.

You would never see them.' Is marriage a possibility?

She pauses. 'I like to stick to my oneday-at-a-time belief. All I know is that I'm happy in my life right now. But the truth is, I don't really like to talk about my real life with Adam. ' She looks emphatic, but it's easy to see she's smitten. She frequently glances in Brody's direction, and she doesn't mind slipping in the fact that he is making a film this summer called In the Land of Women, with Meg Ryan. 'I think he's really talented,' she says.

Bilson was born and raised in the Valley, an area within Los Angeles, often described as what Essex is to London, with just as many jokes.

Her parents divorced when she was nine, and she lived with her older brother and her mother, who is an artist. Her father is scriptwriter and director Danny Bilson; her grandfather Bruce Bilson directed TV shows such as The Colbys and The Twilight Zone.

Both parents were encouraging when Bilson announced after high school that she wanted to act. Her father even set her up with an agent. But until The OC came along, her career amounted to little more than a couple of lines on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a cereal commercial.

It's a different story now, and Bilson is suddenly an elated, wide-eyed teenager as she talks about The Last Kiss, a coming-of- age movie about people in transition from their twenties to their thirties. She plays a young girl who ends up having sex with Zach Braff's character a first for Bilson.

'I'm covered up,' she says. 'I wouldn't do nude scenes. But it was fine. Zach made me feel comfortable. Working on the film has been the most amazing experience of my life.

'We were away filming in Montreal that's such a great city. And a lot of the cast was young, and everyone was so cool, so we went out a lot,' she rushes on.

'So many funny things happened. One night we ended up in hospital until 7am because Zach sliced his finger at the bar.

'And then there was this amazing party, hosted by the owner of Cirque du Soleil. It was the craziest party I've ever been to.

I remember walking outside at the end and it was already light. Everyone was like, "Where did the night go?"' With her breathless enthusiasm, Bilson sounds more like a typical Californian adolescent than a 23-year-old. And perhaps unsurprisingly, her favourite pastime is shopping. 'I just love it, I really do,' she says. Indeed, she is so insistent about the joys of vintage and designer shopping that it is tempting to think that the only depth to her might be her wardrobe space.

But there is more to Bilson than her expansive shoe and handbag collection.

During the last election, she campaigned for Democrat John Kerry.

'I am very against the Republican state of mind that our country is in,' she says.

'I've always voted, but I've become more

passionate about politics the more I've learned about it. I got involved in the last election because of what was going on in Iraq. I also thought if I could make any difference with the small amount of celebrity I have, then it was important to do that. We all know how it turned out, but I tried. At least I didn't just sit there and do nothing.' There is also a considered strategy behind her career that suggests someone who is very driven.

'Ultimately, my goal is a film career,' she says. 'That's what I want to do.

I think there was a time when, if you were in a soap, you were pigeonholed for ever in that genre. But this is a different time. Right now the younger generation is hot in Hollywood. Katie Holmes crossed over from Dawson's Creek into mainstream films. That's what I'm hoping for. And most of my time, when I'm not working, I'm looking at scripts. That's what you have to do.' For someone who grew up in LA, and now lives the showbusiness adventure, Bilson is uncommonly grounded. She drives a Volvo, and recently bought a modest house in the Hollywood Hills, which she shares, not with Brody but with a girlfriend she has known since high school, and her dog called Penny Lane.

'I'm more of a stay-inside-and-watcha-film kind of girl than someone who goes out partying every night,' she says.

'I think that everything one becomes has to do with how you were brought up as a child that has a huge impact on who you are as a person. And I had such a stable upbringing. I still have a really good relationship with my mother. She lives about five minutes away from me, and we're on the phone to each other at least three times a day.

'There's not much time for anything other than work, anyway. We work long hours on The OC. Sometimes I have to be on set at 6am, sometimes there are night shoots, and sometimes I'm not home till really late. But also I hit the partying phase a long time ago. Because I grew up here, I feel I've done all the crazy carryings-on that people do in Hollywood.

Let's say I've definitely had my experiences, enough to be satisfied and not be interested in new things.' Next on the agenda, after more films, is a family. 'In ten years' time, I would love to have a well-established film career and a family, because that comes first to me,' she says. 'I love children. I'd like to find the balance.

Reese Witherspoon did it, although she did it a bit younger than I would like.' She looks over once more at Brody, who is starting to look restless.

'I think my time might be up,' she says, smiling warmly. She returns to him, they buy more coffee, and the patrons at the coffee shop tune in for another episode of the real-life soap. 'The OC: The Complete Second Season' is released tomorrow.


Question time


Name your five perfect dinner-party guests.
'Johnny Depp. I love, love, love him.
Woody Allen, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Marilyn Monroe.'


When was your last shopping trip and what did you buy?
'Yesterday. I went to a designer shoe shop in LA. Shoes are my weakness.
I bought two pairs.


What is your beauty secret?
'Wet and Wild eyeliner. It's only $1 and it works the best.'


Who was on the first poster you had on your wall?
'Patrick Swayze.'


What do you feel most guilty about eating?
'Pigs. I'm not a vegetarian, but I love pigs so much. I feel badly about eating them.'


If fame were to end today, what would you do instead?
'Be a teacher or a mum. I really love children.'


What is your biggest regret?
'I don't believe in regrets.'


When was the last time you got drunk?
'I don't drink much, I get sick too easily. But it was a couple of weeks ago.'


What is the most expensive mistake you have ever made?
'Dye that turned my hair orange.'


If you were a superhero, what would your special power be?
'The ability to read minds.'


What is the most important thing you have ever lost?
'My grandmother.'


When did you last use public transport?
'I'm not much of a bus person. This is LA. Everyone drives here.'

she is so down to earth! glad to know that there is still that kind of person roaming the fame city.

[Elvere]

this was a real nice and fun interview to read, thanks for posting that

thanks for posting that.. she is totally a down to earth and what seems to be a REAL person for a celebrity.. that was a great interview and her and adam seem sooo happy

she sounds soo cool and down to earth

Well it is just the beginning!I hope she stays that way!

Thanks for posting the article. I love Rachel more than I already do.

thakns for posting, rach is a great person

thanks for that! rach is DEFINATELY my fave! loved her all the waay!!

thats a real cool article. love that questions part.