Rachel Bilson is basically watching 'The O.C.' for the first time with new podcast

California, here we come right back where we started from (and we cannot wait)! Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke’s Welcome to the OC, Bitches! podcast premieres today and ahead of the premiere, The O.C. stars spoke about what we can expect. The shocking thing is that Bilson barely remembers 👏 a 👏single 👏 thing 👏.

Summer Roberts and Julie Cooper, ahem, we mean Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke, joined PopSugar's Not Over It podcast to dish on Welcome to the OC, Bitches! and all the memories that come with The O.C.

The iconic O.C. duo has been talking about starting this podcast since last May. Bilson said it was brought up as an idea and she was sitting at home with her 6-year-old and thought “wait, work from home? Revisit The O.C.? That sounds awesome.” That sounds like the literal dream for a lot of us too.

Bilson hit up Clarke and asked her if she’d want to co-host the podcast with her. Clarke said that the subject line was “Mindy it’s Bilson,” and explained that she’d been approached with the idea and asked her to join to project.

“Super random and I didn’t think it was her. I was like ‘who is this person?’” Clarke said, admitting she thought she was basically being catfished. 

Remember when Summer said she suffers from rage blackouts? Well, it turns out that Bilson suffers from O.C. blackouts.

Bilson said the running joke with her is that she has no memory so someone could bring up a storyline for Summer Roberts and she wouldn’t even remember what happened. So even though she's re-watching The O.C., it feels like the first time for her.

So you’re telling us you don’t remember when Seth tried to advise Summer against telling a college interviewer that Miuccia Prada is her idol? Wait until you get there, Bilson! You had an iconic response. 

Since she’s just an audience member now, Bilson said that she’s rooting for Anna and Seth but she’s interested in seeing Summer and Seth's love story. “I want to see the Seth and Summer thing happen because I just don’t remember.” OK, BUT HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Clarke said she approached re-watching The O.C. “with a new set of eyes.” 

“Obviously, we’re older. My daughter was seven when it ended and she’s 21 now so I’ve been through the whole teenage angst, real teen angst. I so related that much more to just what Jimmy and Julie were doing to Marissa. I so empathize and sympathize with her plight and what she’s going through,” Clarke said, adding that she pays more attention to the details and not just her acting this time around.

So many things from the series, which aired from 2003 to 2007, hit different for the actresses now.

“We definitely first sort of talk about the amount of makeup and bronzer that was a part of that world. It’s pretty surreal at least seeing myself at 21, I feel like it’s such a difference from then until now, you know I’m 39 and it’s like a lifetime has gone by so just watching it — the fashion, which is mindboggling,” Bilson said, acknowledging that some things have come full-circle like vintage Levi’s skirts and Juicy Couture tracksuits.

“I think the bikini tops as shirts need to be retired permanently, but that’s just me,” Bilson added.

If you’re looking forward to the cast reuniting on the podcast, get ready for Sandy Cohen a.k.a. Peter Gallagher to make an appearance and hopefully address the beloved bagels and schmearing the cream cheese.

For everyone trying to re-watch The O.C. with Bilson and Clarke (especially in Canada where we don’t have HBO Max), even Summer Roberts… we mean Bilson… is paying by the episode on Amazon. ELLE OH ELLE. 

In some non-O.C.-related tea, Clarke admitted that she’s not over Regé-Jean Page not coming back for another season of Bridgerton. 

Bilson is still not over something that seems a bit historic at this point: the Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt breakup. She said it happened while they were filming The O.C. and she remembers exactly where they were when she heard the news. 

“We were at this mall. Adam Brody had worked with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on Mr. and Mrs. Smith so kind of like had been around them and then the news broke about Jen and Brad and I was like ‘the world is coming to an end! What the f—k is happening?’” Well, Rachel, there is hope for the two to reboot that relationship because they’re both currently single.

When she was asked if Brody had any intel on that situation between Jolie and Pitt while shooting that movie, Bilson said, "No comment."

The podcast's first episode is set to premiere today on April 27 and the pair have signed on to host more than 100 episodes of the new podcast. Music to our hearts, with a hint of Death Cab for Cutie.

Clarke and Bilson both starred in The O.C. for four seasons from 2003 to 2007. The show also starred Mischa Barton as Marissa Cooper, Adam Brody as Seth Cohen, Ben McKenzie as Ryan Atwood, Peter Gallagher as Sandy Cohen, Kelly Rowan as Kirsten Cohen and Tate Donovan as Jimmy Cooper.

Every Tuesday, Bilson and Clarke will rewatch an episode of the show and dissect everything for us from “the music, the drama, the parties, the love triangles, the fashion and the teenage angst.” They will also be joined by former cast members, writers, and musicians from the show.

We need an episode with Summer, Anna and Seth so they can all dissect that love triangle.

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