Adam Brody is no longer worrying about comparisons to 'The O.C.’: 'I'm past that'

To be honest, Adam Brody isn't really a games guy.

But that changes this week.

Although his character in the R-rated horror comedy “Ready or Not” (in theaters Wednesday) isn’t either, that matters little when conscripted into his wealthy family’s insane wedding ritual.

Whenever someone marries into his family (which is way more screwed up than, say, the clan of HBO’s “Succession”), the new bride or groom must pick a classic game to play the night of the nuptials. If it’s hide and seek, the game turns lethal; the bride or groom must run for their lives.

“While we were making it, I was thinking, 'This is so funny – is it so goofy, will it not be scary at all?' I was delightfully surprised at how tense it was when I saw it,” says Brody, 39, who plays a self-medicating drunk in "Ready or Not," which has been anointed by critics with a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

At home with wife Leighton Meester, 33, an avid game player, and their 4-year-old daughter, Arlo, things are way more G-rated: “Candy Land is what we’re doing now,” he says.

One might think it's frustrating for Brody, who has stuffed his resume with a plethora of TV and movie roles since rising to fame as Seth Cohen in “The O.C.,” to still be immediately identified with the wisecracking teen he played. (Indeed, a photo snapped by former co-star Rachel Bilson went viral last week when she ran into Brody at JFK.)

But “I’m past that,” says Brody, who appeared in "Shazam!" earlier this year and is currently filming the women's movement FX series “Mrs. America” opposite Cate Blanchett. "As much as maybe the audience remembers or might see me as the same character always, I feel that things come my way that are different enough to satisfy me. I don’t feel pigeonholed.”

Brody has no formal comment on the latest wave of teen remakes, from “BH 90210” to Meester’s former show “Gossip Girl." His experience as a teen sensation “feels like a very long time ago,” he says. “Put it this way: The O.C. was pre-social media. George (W.) Bush was president for the entirety of ‘The O.C.’"

The actor says that, with age, he’s getting to play more complex characters: fathers, authority figures, men in complicated marriages. He and Meester, who stars in ABC's "Single Parents," try to work at separate times, but they overlap, he says: "We don’t have that kind of pull."

Fatherhood has also lessened any fear of getting older. For Brody, becoming a dad has “given me a perspective on every aspect of my life," he says. "I’m the most content I’ve ever been. ... It makes (turning 40) more exciting."

Away from work, he and Meester have managed to stay impressively private. Meester is on Instagram, but Brody is not.

“It took me a decade to get on Twitter, but I like it,” he says.

How do they manage to shield themselves from view?

“The simplest answer is, we’re homebodies,” says Brody, noting that putting their child on social media “is sort of out of the question for us.” (Though he has “no judgments” on parents who do.)

But expect him to get more vocal as the next election nears.

“I will be getting more political not because I want to, but because we have to,” he says, calling President Donald Trump "incompetent" and the state of the nation dire. “We’re (screwed) really soon if we don’t figure some stuff out."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Adam Brody 'past' 'The O.C.' comparisons, moves on to 'Ready or Not'