It’s hard to stop life from imitating art. Ed Westwick opened up about filming Gossip Girl opposite Leighton Meester — and said acting like he was in love with her wasn’t the most difficult part of his job.
“It’s hard not to fall in love with Leighton — like, have a part of me fall in love with her, you know?” Westwick, 34, admitted during a Q&A session with fans at Monopoly Events’ Comic Con Liverpool, held on Saturday, November 13, and Sunday, November 14, at England’s Exhibition Centre Liverpool.
Westwick played Chuck Bass, the bad boy of the Upper East Side, while Meester, now 35, played Blair Waldorf, who was the queen bee among their high school friends. The characters eventually fell in love on the teen drama, which ran from 2007 to 2012 on The CW. Their epic romance is even still remembered on HBO Max’s Gossip Girl revival among the new class of Constance-St. Jude students, some of whom dressed up as iconic Upper East Side couple for a costume party.
The British actor continued to praise his onscreen love interest, telling fans, “She’s amazing.”
@emiliariches My Chuck & Blair heart
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Chuck and Blair’s epic romance was one of viewers’ favorite relationships on Gossip Girl, but Meester wasn’t the only costar Westwick formed a close bond with. He’s still friends with Chace Crawford, who played Nathaniel Archibald, and the duo even agreed to be roommates while filming the show’s pilot. At the time, they weren’t even sure if Gossip Girl would get picked up.
“We lived together the first two years in Chelsea, [New York], and we had a blast,” Westwick said in Liverpool. “He’s a couple of years older than me so it’s a little bit, kind of, an older brother role. And we just cracked on. I went to Dallas, Texas, where he’s from, had Thanksgiving down there. Spent some time with his lovely family. Went to his sister’s wedding [to Tony Romo]. Great guy.”
Westwick, Crawford, now 36, and their fellow Gossip Girl cast members were a tightly knit group, with some even sparking romances with one another in real life. The Single Parents actress, for her part, dated Sebastian Stan from 2008 to 2010 while he guest starred as Carter Baizen. She later moved on with husband Adam Brody, who she married in 2014. They share daughter Arlo, 6, and welcomed a son in September 2020.
Meanwhile, the Me, You, Madness star was linked to costar Jessica Szohr, who played Vanessa Abrams, from 2008 to 2010. More recently, the White Gold alum dated model Tamara Francesconi, from whom he split in September. Westwick was previously accused of sexual misconduct by four women, but Us Weekly confirmed in July 2018 that he did not face rape charges due to insufficient evidence.