Rachel Bilson Says Another Actor on ‘The O.C.’ Caused an IRL Love Triangle With Adam Brody

Apparently love triangles weren’t just a matter of fiction on the set of The O.C.

During a recent episode of the Welcome to the OC, Bitches! podcast, Rachel Bilson, who famously portrayed rich hottie Summer Roberts, revealed she got a bit “jealous” watching her then boyfriend Adam Brody kiss another actor during a scene in season one. Of course, Brody played Summer’s endgame boyfriend Seth Cohen on the California teen drama.

Bilson and Brody dated practically the entire run of the sun-soaked Fox series, which aired from 2003 to 2007. (The pair split in 2006, and Brody is currently married to fellow teen drama icon Leighton Meester.) While Summer and Seth were paired up for most of the series, he kisses another Orange County resident, Anna Stern (Samaire Armstrong), during the “Homecoming” episode.

Before you send Bilson clips of Britney Spears decimating that reporter for asking about her onscreen kisses, this wasn’t just any kiss. According to Bilson, Armstrong broke an unwritten Hollywood rule. “When Seth is in the bedroom with Anna and she goes to kiss him, I see Samaire, like, slip tongue,” Bilson told cohost and former castmate Melinda Clarke, per People. Clarke, of course, played the show’s infamous mom Julie Cooper. 

So yeah, that moment definitely caused some “tension” behind the scenes. “I get a little jealous and I’m like, ‘Um, what are you doing slipping tongue in his mouth?’ It was like the real-life [love] triangle playing out as I’m watching it,” Bilson continued. “There’s no tongue in television!”

She added, “I feel like it definitely played out a little bit in real life for a minute, even though not really-really. But I remember the tension with Samaire, like, a little bit because it was just this triangle or whatever.”

Okay, but who else suddenly has the urge to binge-watch The O.C. from start to finish for the seventh time? Just me? Good thing it’s available on HBO Max right now.