Mischa Barton Enters Virgin Territory
September 4, 2008

Just released on DVD by Anchor Bay, the lush period piece Virgin Territory tells of the lives and loves of a group of young Florentines on the Italian countryside circa 1340. The Black Death might be ravaging Europe, but this splintered groups of young and overly-videogenic Italians—portrayed by such decidedly non-Italian performers as America’s Hayden Christensen and Ryan Cartwright and England’s Mischa Barton and

Director David Leland, best known for the work he’s done with such one-time up-and-coming actresses as Emily Lloyd (1987’s Wish You Were Here) and Catherine McCormack and Rachel Weisz (1998’s The Land Girls), told me in a recent phone chat that the performances in Virgin Territory were “very fine” but that he often found himself frustrated at the work—and work ethic—of leading lady Barton.

“I’m not a big fan of the Friends school of acting or the whispering school of acting,” said Leland. “Before she became part of the Hollywood scene with The O.C., [Mischa] had a lot of potential. My feeling was that she spent a lot of time, maybe too much time, doing that kind of acting. It’s very difficult to break away from that. I was pushing her, maybe even bullying her, to break her of the habit.”

“And I had to keep confiscating her mobile phone,” he added.

Okay, so did Leland’s pushing and bullying and cellular confiscation yield satisfactory results?

“Not fully,” admitted Leland. “You have to get her to work behind the eyes—to tap into what going on in there. But she did look great and the way [costume designer] Roberto Cavalli dressed her was fantastic.”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on September 4, 2008 | Comments (1)