Actress Mischa Barton is turning her back on the world of TV following the cancellation of her latest series The Beautiful Life - because she wants to focus on "more serious roles."

The 23 year old rose to fame starring in teen show The O.C., but struggled to land any major movie roles after the program ended in 2006. She signed on to Ashton Kutcher's modeling drama The Beautiful Life earlier this year, but the series was scrapped by The CW in September due to poor ratings after airing just two episodes.

Barton is now reconsidering her acting future and realizes the small screen might not be for her. She tells People.com, "I think I need to back away from the whole TV approach. That whole world of network television probably isn't, for me, a good idea now. I need to start reading for more serious roles."

However, Barton insists she will take her time to decide what her next project will be. She says, "It's too early to tell yet. I'm passing on all the (early) offers, because that's not the stuff you want to do. I want to go fight for interesting things and look for something that's going to be interesting for me... as a role."

So she's taking time out to focus on getting back into shape. Barton adds, "(I'm) reading scripts and enjoying living in New York. Now that I'm not doing the TV show, I've got lots of time to work out."

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)