Long before beginning his relationship with Leighton Meester, Adam Brody achieved mainstream fame through his role as Seth Cohen on Fox’s teen drama The O.C., which first aired in 2003. Fans of the show often cite Seth Cohen as their favorite character, and he definitely had a major impact on pop culture at the time. Seth encouraged teenagers to embrace their weirdness and gave them someone to look up to when they felt like they didn’t fit in. And arguably, there’s no one else that could’ve pulled off Seth Cohen as perfectly as Adam Brody.
Adam Brody first knew he wanted to be an actor after working as a clerk at Blockbuster. Since then, he’s put a lot of work into honing his craft and doing his roles justice. But when he went in to audition for The O.C.’s creators for the first time, they were less than impressed. Read on to find out why!
Adam Brody As Seth Cohen
The O.C. debuted on the Fox network in 2003 and instantly won over millions of loyal fans. The show follows the lives of a group of wealthy teenagers living in California’s Newport Beach. One of the show’s most popular characters, still to this day, is Seth Cohen, who was played by Adam Brody.
Seth won over the hearts of fans all over the world, but he’s not your average heartthrob. This geeky character was written to represent those who felt like they didn’t fit into high school. Before the show starts, Seth is an outcast who’s shunned by the rest of his classmates.
It takes a special kind of actor to bring a character as lovable as Seth to life. The show’s creators eventually settled on Adam Brody, who understandably doesn’t want to talk about The O.C. much these days, for the role of Seth, but they weren’t so convinced at first.
Josh Schwartz’s First Impression
Josh Schwartz created The O.C. and served as a producer on the show, so his opinion counts for a lot. When Adam Brody came in for his first audition, he didn’t wow Schwartz. In fact, he didn’t even impress him. But his issues with Brody weren’t regarding his talent or suitability for the role. His bone to pick was more with Brody’s work ethic and attitude.
“It was pilot season and he [Brody] was going on dozens of auditions,” Schwartz said in an interview with The Daily Beast (via Cheat Sheet), “and he didn’t really bother to learn the lines, so he just came in and I was like, ‘What scene is he doing? Is this even from our show?'”
Impressing The Casting Director
So if he left such a terrible first impression on the one person whose opinion mattered most, how the heck did Adam Brody land the part of Seth Cohen in the end?
While Josh Schwartz “hated” Brody, the casting director Patrick Rush saw his potential from the beginning. It came to a point where they were struggling to find someone who could play Seth. That’s when Rush suggested to Schwartz that they call Brody back and give him another shot.
“And I thought, ‘That guy?’” Schwartz recalled. “I kind of hated that guy. He didn’t even learn any of the words!”
A Second Chance
Ultimately, Schwartz went against his gut feeling and called Brody back for a second chance. This time, the young actor was much more prepared. He rehearsed properly for the audition and was able to show them his true potential.
“But he came back, learned the words, and he was great,” Schwartz said.
Brody’s Criticisms Of The Show
Criticism goes both ways. While Josh Schwartz originally had an issue with Adam Brody’s lack of preparation for his first audition, Brody has since spoken out about elements of the show that he wasn’t a fan of, even though he loved being on the show overall.
In particular, he didn’t enjoy the Season Two episode ‘The Mallpisode’: “I just remember thinking, 'Oh no, this is feeling so untethered from what it was,’” he revealed (via Digital Spy). He also wasn’t a fan of the way his character’s on-screen relationship with Summer Roberts played out, with the two breaking up and getting back together so many times: “And I felt like, still feel like, if we would've stayed apart for a year and the audience [was] dying to have them back together but they just can't make it, I think [we] could've wrung some more out of that."
The Cultural Impact Of Seth Cohen
In the end, Adam Brody was born to play Seth Cohen. The show arguably wouldn’t have been such a success without Brody’s take on Seth, since that’s one of the most endearing elements that won over so many die-hard fans.
Although Brody has now moved on from Seth Cohen, he understands why Seth was such a hit with fans. Josh Schwartz summed it up nicely at the ATX TV Festival in 2016: "I think [he] gave voice to a kind of kid who once they got to college was going to be fine, was going to do great, but in high school, where conformity is key, those kind of kids who can't quite conform and want to live outside of that a little bit, hadn't really had somebody to really look to onscreen who had all those qualities and got to get the girl, as well."
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