When 19-year old Mischa Barton revealed her publicist asked her to sleep with 30-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio

After reports surfaced of Leonardo DiCaprio dating 19-year-old model, Eden Polani, many were reminded of Mischa Barton’s comments about the actor in 2005. She had said that her publicist at the time had asked her to be with Leonardo for the sake of her career. The 48-year-old Oscar-winning actor has built a reputation over the years for not dating anyone over the age of 25. Recently, Leonardo faced a lot of backlash on social media when he was photographed hanging out with Eden at a Los Angeles party. (Also read: Twitter trolls Leonardo DiCaprio over romance with Eden Polani, 19: ‘She was not even born when Titanic was released)

Mischa, who is now 37, made her debut as a child artiste on stage and appeared in American soap operas like All My Children. She acted in small roles in the Hollywood films Notting Hill (1999) with Hugh Grant and M Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999). But it was her role as Marissa Cooper on the Fox television series The OC that made her a breakout star. She appeared on the US show for three seasons.

When she was 19, the actor recalled that her publicist at the time, Craig Schneider, had asked to go out with Leonardo DiCaprio after his breakup with Gisele Bündchen. In a December 2005 interview with Harpers & Queen, now known as Harper’s Bazaar, Mischa had revealed after she and Craig saw Leonardo at a Malibu photo shoot, Craig told her, “For the sake of your career, go and sleep with that man.” Mischa, who had no interest in dating him, replied, “Isn’t Leo, like 30 or something?” Mischa appeared in the first season of the MTV series The Hills: New Beginnings in 2019 and was last seen in the thriller Invitation To A Murder last year.

Last year, Leonardo was said to be dating model Gigi Hadid and 23-year-old actor Victoria Lamas. He won his first Oscar for Best Actor with the survival drama The Revenant (2015). The actor was last seen in the Netflix film Don’t Look Up (2021) with Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, and Jonah Hill. Later this year, he will star in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon along with Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, and Brendan Fraser.