Mischa Barton says she’s happy to be voted off Dancing with the Stars because her experience was not a great one. In fact, the actress claims her three-week stay was downright “awful” and she lacked chemistry with partner Artem Chigvintsev.

She explained to The Ringer: “Ugh, I had no idea it would be so bad. I got told off by my dancer.

I was supposed to control the costumes, I was told that I could do the design aspect of it, that’s kind of the reason why I agreed to do it.

That didn’t happen. It wasn’t collaborative like a choreographer on a film set. … I was so confused by it. It was like ‘The Hunger Games’. It was all a popularity contest. It was awful. I was so glad to get kicked off.”

Speaking of bad experiences, Mischa was arrested for drunk driving back in 2007 and subsequently sectioned. Certain life experiences have led her to believe that it’s harder to handle fame than most people normally think.

Asked how stardom has shaped her personality and daily life, she stated: “The business has changed so much. It’s just so crazy out there. I’ve been acting since I was eight years old and then did the theatre.

My first movies were like old-school; I did Richard Attenborough’s last film … I came from the days of real film.

There was no digital. It takes a second to switch your brain over to that; it did for me. Now these young people think it’s so easy to be famous. It isn’t easy. They think it’s so easy to handle fame. It isn’t.”

The star is also trying to find ways to reinvent herself to keep her career from feeling stale: “I keep thinking of this thing I heard, that if you don’t reinvent yourself every seven years, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

I think that’s interesting. I think it’s really hard to do  -  I think it’s extremely scary for women especially, every seven years, but I’m kind of at that crossroads again. It’s about time for me again to reinvent myself and do something different.”