by Maura Gavaghan
After portraying the lovably sarcastic Summer Roberts for four seasons on "The O.C.", Rachel Bilson secured a place in the hearts and minds of teen drama fans everywhere—and oh, how we've missed her! Now Rachel is back, reuniting with "O.C." creator Josh Schwartz for the charming new series "Hart of Dixie." Instead of a teenage girl struggling through high school in affluent Newport Beach, she'll be starring as a talented doctor who finds herself starting over after a bad breakup and an unexpected turn in her career.
Some critics have compared "Hart of Dixie" to past fan favorites such as "Felicity" and "Everwood," but we decided to get the inside scoop from the most reliable source—Miss Bilson herself! We sat down recently with Rachel to get her take on this feel-good fall drama.
"'Hart of Dixie' is a story of a doctor who I play who lives in New York City, who is from New York City, and moves to a small southern town called Bluebell, Alabama, to take over a general practice for a year," Rachel explained. The series will begin with Rachel's sudden arrival into Bluebell, but as the romance and medical drama unfold, "Hart of Dixie" will certainly prove to be more than the typical "fish out of water" story.
While "O.C." fans might feel iffy about replacing memories of Summer Roberts with a new character, Rachel assured us that her new role is just as exciting. "My character is Zoe Hart. She wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, so she's very ambitious, and smart, and independent, which I admire, but she's a little—she doesn't have good bedside manner and not the best social skills, so she's a fun character to play. But, yeah, she goes to Bluebell to sort of figure it out." Sounds like we'll get to see the fun, quirky, sweet side of Rachel after all!
With medical drama, romance, comedy, a touch of southern charm, and Rachel Bilson in the starring role, we have high hopes for tonight's premiere! As if that wasn't enough, Rachel added, "Everyone should tune into the premiere of 'Hart of Dixie' because it's a lot of fun and there's cute boys!"
Cute boys? She speaks the truth. Bilson is joined by Scott Porter ("Friday Night Lights"), Wilson Bethel and Wade Kinsella, who guest starred as her boyfriend on an episode of "The O.C."!
Are you excited for tonight's "Hart of Dixie" premiere? Will you be watching? Sound off in the comments and on Twitter!
** Hollywood Crush Twitter