This is why I love Ed Westwick

[felicityking]

Not because he plays Chuck Bass, but because he calls Chuck Bass "an asshole." Not because he gives polite brush-offs to Chair shippers, but says he "really ready" to be done playing Upper East Side's Bad Boy. (His comments are on par with Penn's for their bluntness.)

[url="www.iol.co.za/tonight/gossip/westwick-ready-to-dump-his-alter-ego-1.1020079"] Ed Westwick is ready to move on[/url]
 

“It's all about the work, you know; the feeling you get when you connect to the work. And that's what I had with Chuck Bass in the beginning - I was fascinated by him. But now, to be completely honest, I'm ready to do something else. Really ready to do something else.”

He added in an interview with Tatler magazine: “It was refreshing to go from playing an a**hole to playing someone who's a bit more like I am – a nice boy. He has a heart, he has a soul, and he's still figuring out his place in the world.”

And I'm so excited that his interview comes on the heels of the (accidental?) PR disaster that Leighton caused (she very diplomatically said when their contracts expire 2 years from now, she's not coming back causing all kinds of fan debate and uproar), whereby even showrunner Stephanie Savage had to come out and do media control.

Mostly I just love him because while Chuckistans excuse away all of Chuck's actions and continually try justify his behavior, he just comes out and says "he's an asshole."  I think it's SO awesome that he doesn't drink the woobie koolaid his fans and showrunner consume as if it's the last hours of Jamestown.

Comments

[veritas724.livejournal.com]

People seem to have a really hard time differentiating Chuck from Ed, which is mind-boggling to me because as SOON as I hear his British accent I'm like "Who is that guy? IS THAT CHUCK?"

But I mean... you know me. I used to be a Chuck/Blair shipper. Not terribly passionate about it but I enjoyed it. And it ran its course. Two years ago I would've been devastated by such an interview (the ones from Penn and Leighton, too) so I can sorta see where the teenie Chuck fans are coming from.

I'd like to see Ed tackle a British a-hole, personally. I think he'd do a more convincing job if he didn't have to whisper his dialogue just to keep up the American accent. I bet he'd top Chuck easily.

(As a side note, I feel like the real "jump the shark" moment was in the winter finale when Chuck and Lily were on opposing sides. Like, REALLY? Chuck's ONE FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP? Makes me think JS and SS are ready to be done, too.)

[felicityking.livejournal.com]

Funny that you should say that, because Ed just did an interview where he said people are still sometimes surprised to discover he's English. (Also, that he sick of playing the "high school kid" which is mind-boggling because Chuck has been acting like a 40 year old businessman for the past 3 seasons.)

I think you nailed it though: the teenieboppers are young and at still in that stage where they can't distinguish fantasy from reality which is why the get THIS defensive about any Chuck criticism.

I had a similar mindset myself once upon a time. (In the mid-1990s, I was a huge Kevin Costner fan, and it took me a looooooong time to believe the reports that he was a womanizer, egotistical, and a control freak because he always plays such straight arrow good guys on screen.) I have since come to appreciate that actors are human and aren't identical to the characters they play, but I do miss that awe feeling I used to get when I followed actors. (And am thankful that at least KC's meltdown was nowhere near as crazy or as dramatic as Mel Gibson's.)