The O.C.: Health Hazard?
Samaire Armstrong would never advocate giving up The O.C. (which, coincidentally, she does tonight at 9 ET on Fox). However, she does recommend tuning in without acting out. Although her character, bootylicious brainiac Anna, is as levelheaded as they come, not all of the prime-time sudser's pretty young things are models of the role variety.
"After the episode where Marissa OD'd on drugs, [the network ran] the whole 'If you're having suicidal thoughts, please call this number' [PSA],'" she recalls for TV Guide Online, "and we actually got a call from the head of the association saying that their calls had increased by 20 or 30 percent — which is a good and bad thing. It's like, does that mean that people who watch our show have a tendency to commit suicide, or are we really helping people?"
All kidding aside, the Not Another Teen Movie costar loves that her fictional friends in Newport Beach, Calif., are magnets for trouble. "The bigger the problems, the better"... that's her motto. "Forget about the war and the famine and all that," she suggests, tongue in cheek. "Right in our studio, we've got this [unreal] society set up and built around instant gratification.
"[In that imaginary kingdom] this is how we're going to deal with things," she continues, on a roll. "We're going to do the most shocking thing possible, and it'll be done. Then we'll have another set of problems to deal with, and we'll solve them in the same shocking way. And we'll get greater and greater ratings every time!" At least for so long as Fox keeps reminding viewers not to pull such stunts at home.
