Mischa Barton joins cast of Australian TV soap Neighbours

Ramsay Street is getting a taste of Hollywood, with the newly-relaunched Neighbours making a big casting announcement.

Neighbours has dropped a casting bombshell, announcing Hollywood star Mischa Barton is joining the Aussie soap. Picture: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Well, that was unexpected.

With Neighbours given an international lifeline, producers have added a surprise Hollywood name to the cast.

The OC star Mischa Barton is swapping California for fictional Ramsay Street, Erinsborough, in an extended guest role on the Aussie TV soap that started filming again in Melbourne on Monday.

Barton, 37, will play Reece, an American new to the show “who’s not quite who she appears to be”.

“I’m excited to be part of this iconic show’s next chapter, and I am really looking forward to being back in Australia, a place I know and love,” Barton said. “I think the character of Reece is going to be a great role for me to explore and play with.”

Mischa Barton grew up in the UK so could be a lifelong Neighbours fan. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Details on why Barton has signed up to the show are as yet unknown, although originally from the UK, where Neighbours has had a huge following, it could be that she watched the series as a young child and is a fan.

Regardless, it is a major coup for the show, which was axed after a 37-year run when Channel 5 in the UK did not renew its production deal with Fremantle Australia. It had previously aired for decades on the BBC.

Cast, crew and fans alike were shocked when Amazon Freevee and Prime Video came on board as international broadcast partners at the end of last year, months after the final episode had aired to a national viewing audience in Australia alone of more than 1.48 million people.

It saw the return of much loved former cast members including Kylie Minogue, Guy Peace, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie and Natalie Imbruglia.

The OC’s instant popularity made Mischa Barton and Ben McKenzie household names when the show debuted on screens in 2003.

“We are beyond excited to have an actor of Mischa’s calibre join us for the beginning of this exciting new chapter,” executive producer Jason Herbison said. “Mischa’s character is dynamic and unpredictable, and will have an instant presence on Ramsay Street.”

Barton’s other acting credits of course include Notting Hill, The Sixth Sense and St Trinian’s.

Cameras rolled on the series again yesterday at Melbourne’s Nunawading studios with the likes of Alan Fletcher, Jackie Woodburne, Ryan Moloney and Stefan Denis returning.

Alan Fletcher, Annie Jones, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Stefan Dennis and Annie Jones on the first day of Neighbours filming.

“To be honest, I never thought it would come back,” Fletcher, 66, told Confidential on his first day back on set. “Once a show ends, the metaphor I use for this show is that it is like a huge cruise liner and when you decommission a ship like this and put it into dry dock, it is an immense exercise to get it up and going again. So the very fact they’ve been able to do it is a Titanic achievement.”

Also in the returning cast are Annie Jones, Tim Kano, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Georgie Stone, Ian Smith, April Rose Pengilly, and Melissa Bell.