He plays one of the most complex, bow tie-loving characters to have ever hit the small screen.
Yet British-born Ed Westwick opens up about what it’s like to play a hurt — not heartless — Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl.
Q. What do you love most about your Gossip Girl character Chuck Bass?
A. He’s complex. He’s developing from someone who initially was just a bad boy, to a brat who did as he pleased with all this money and now he’s almost at a different place… Chuck is growing as a person. He’s someone who’s had to wake up and smell the coffee and take a long hard look in the mirror and mature, and, to a certain extent, do it on his own.
Q. Do you see Chuck as malicious?
A. His non-existent relationship with his father — him having almost no love or affection — manifests itself in this malicious way. It’s the key to his character.
Q. Let’s say he’s a hurt character then. What did you do to prepare for the role, to become and think like Chuck?
A. I think it was more like a case of picking up on it as the series develops over time. Now I feel like I have a world of knowledge and understanding about him because of what has happened to him. It’s all grown organically, and naturally, it’s who I am on set.
Q. You’re actually British, but you fool everyone as you have a pretty good American accent. How do people react to the real you?
A. At first, people tend to be shocked. It’s funny as one day someone heard me speak on set and they would not accept I was actually English. It’s a total fake thing — the whole American accent. It’s also a different story when I’m around my friends. The rhythm of my accent may change but not too much.
