Neighbours: Mischa Barton says joining 'fast-paced and crazy' soap was serendipity

Mischa Barton says her new role on rebooted soap Neighbours was "serendipitous".

Speaking exclusively at a recent press event, the star explains how she came to join the iconic Australian soap, in which she plays intriguing newcomer Reece.

Neighbours airs every Monday to Thursday at 7am on Amazon Freevee.

Video transcript

- Mischa, if I can ask, how did your role on "Neighbours" come about? What was the process for that?

MISCHA BARTON: I read the character and actually just really liked the role of Reece. I thought that she was pretty well written for me. I read a lot of things where I'm like, oh, I don't know if I can play that.

And actually, "Neighbours" had approached me way in the past and it was not the right kinds of roles or time. And this just was like serendipitous. It was like, I really think Reece is a cool character. And I think Jason and the writers actually really kind of developed her with somebody like me in mind. And it just seemed to like work.

- Reece and Byron, a lot of passionate scenes together there. How genuine do you think their feelings are for each other, or how genuine do you think Reece's feelings are?

MISCHA BARTON: You know, she comes from this much more fast paced, corporate, like very wealthy world, more international. And he's obviously this Australian happy beach boy. And so I think he falls quite hard for her. And she's like-- but in the end, her feelings are very genuine. I think she's a bit taken aback and surprised by how much she likes him.

But that's where a lot of the drama comes from is the push and pull of that, of like, you know, how much is she really going to commit to that or, you know, and then she surprises herself a little bit. So there's a lot of ups and downs there.

- So we're now two years on from the last time we saw Leo. And he seems quite happy and settled and he's definitely grown up over the last few years. Do you like that for Leo, or would you like some more drama?

TIM KANO: There are a lot of things on the horizon that are definitely going to lead to some really intense twists and turns, good and bad. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. But I think it's definitely not a quiet time for Leo at all. There's a lot, a lot coming up.