Rachel Bilson recalls 'tension' with Samaire Armstrong over Adam Brody on The O.C.

It was life imitating art on The O.C. set, according to star Rachel Bilson.

The actress, who played Summer Roberts on the teen drama, said the onscreen love triangle spilled over into real life, resulting in "tension" between her and costar Samaire Armstrong. In the series, Armstrong's character Anna Stern dates Adam Brody's Seth Cohen, who's actually in love with Summer. Meanwhile, Brody and Bilson dated in real life for three years during the show's run.

Watching the series back, Bilson said she couldn't help but react viscerally to one of Brody and Armstrong's intimate scenes together.

"When Seth is in the bedroom with Anna and she goes to kiss him, I see Samaire slip tongue!" Bilson said on the Welcome to the OC, Bitches podcast, which she hosts with costar Melinda Clarke (who played Julie Cooper on the show). "I'm watching it and she slipped the tongue and me, I get transported back to 18 years ago and I get a little jealous! And I'm like, 'Um, what are you doing slipping tongue in his mouth?'"

She added, "It was like the real-life triangle playing out as I'm watching it. I saw the tongue and I was like, 'There's no tongue in television!'

"I feel like it definitely played out a little bit in real life for a minute," she said. "Not really, really, but I remember the tension with Samaire and I, a little bit. Cause it was just this triangle or whatever."

Bilson and Brody split in 2006 while they were still on The O.C., though in the show their characters got married in the fourth and final season. The actors had a reunion in 2019, when they ran into each other at the airport (and took a selfie with a #californiaherewecome nod to The O.C's theme song).

Since 2014, Brody has been married to Leighton Meester, whom he met while filming the rom-com The Oranges. The couple welcomed their second child last September. Bilson has one daughter with Hayden Christensen, and the pair separated in 2017.

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