Mischa Barton: New Indie Film, But "Couldn't Handle", "Didn't Enjoy" The O.C., "Had No Idea What I Was Getting Into", Glad To Not Be Famous

Mischa Barton is happy to not be super-famous anymore-she says she's happier to be flying under the radar.

Mischa Barton is a classically trained, London-born actress, and she says she's happier to be doing her own thing-and working on roles she cares about.

"That was a foreign world to me, and I didn't particularly enjoy it or feel much at home there," says Barton, 27, of working on "The O.C.", which aired from 2003 to 2007.

Instead, Barton is working on her own roles, such as her new film, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," a dark, cerebral ghost story that opens Friday.

Barton felt thrown into a world she wasn't comfortable with when she first moved to L.A.

 "I had no idea of what I was getting into when I moved to L.A.," Barton says. "I was a real New Yorker. It wasn't my culture. I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't even know how to handle [acting on] television. We shot out of sequence, we'd shoot barely written scenes.

 "I prefer a more logical approach," she added.

The stress and lack of logic lead to a tempestuous relationship and years spent party-hopping, eventually culminating in a 2009 breakdown and involuntary psychiatric hold.

Since that incident, though, Barton has done stage work, such as Tony Kushner's "Slavs!," and "Twelve Dreams" at Lincoln Center, then moved to England, turning her attention to roles she cares about-and to her own recovery.

"Living in London was a deliberate choice," Barton said. "It gave me the opportunity to return to theater and thrive in my element. I've sought out solid projects, and been lucky enough to find them."

And, she says, her new film, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," is a solid project indeed.

 "This film is so well-written, it goes into a spiritual, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' kind of space," she says. "It's a love story that takes a dark and interesting turn that challenges your beliefs. It's the kind of work that gives me a real chance to act."

Barton enjoys acting on indie projects more, she says.

"I like acting in indies," Barton says. "I get to see scripts that you don't find anywhere else. You try to build a varied track record and weed out the junk."