While I know he won't ever read this blog, I still want to wish one of my favorite TV Celebs "Happy Birthday"! Yes, Chuck Bass, aka Ed Westwick, turns 25 today! So I'm going to rave for just a second about how amazing this guy is!
So, first off, this guy was born in England, and he's got the thickest accent I've ever heard. BUT, when he plays his character, he nails the accent(standard American) about 90% of the time. When he does slip up, it's kind of cute. He also has the ability to sweep his scene partner off her feet when doing Blair/Chuck scenes(I would LOVE to get kiss from this guy. Ed Westick knows how to tell stories with his eyes. Even when he's not speaking you just have to look at him to know exactly what he's thinking. He has such an amazing power on the set, and--in my opinion--steals scenes from almost every scene partner he's got. Except Penn Badgely, but that's for another post.
I first saw him in "Gossip Girl", which has been running for 4 seasons, but, silly me, I didn't pick up on it until the finale of season 3(how sad is that?) Any way, I had no idea who any of these people were and had to keep pausing the episode to go on imdb and see who was with who and what and why and...stuff. But I got the gist about halfway through.
So anyway, I fell head over heels in love with Chuck--mostly because he was a "badboy". Brother, I always seem to fall for those types. Question: why? And when he got shot at the end of the episode, I was in shock. This character that I'd known for all of five minutes was dead for all I knew and it wasn't fair!
Imagine my relief when I hopped online and found out that he was not in fact dead and was returning for the next season. So all I had to do was wait until September. Brilliant!
I spent the rest of the summer getting to know as much as possible about "Gossip Girl", so that when the time came I wouldn't be confused. Well, I wasn't, and I still got stars in my eyes whenever Chuck Bass graced the screen.
He's also an amazing actor off of "Gossip Girl." I can't wait to see him as one of my all time favorite Shakespeare bad boys: Tybalt, in "Romeo and Juliet".
This guy is one of the most independent, hard working, amazing, creative, sarcastic, side-splittingly funny people I have ever seen/heard of. Not met him, and probably won't until after I die. Because he's dead. Which sucks. Because he'd be ninety-five otherwise.
His autobio is selling on Amazon for $200--used. There are at least half of his movies available in one way or another via this wonderful thing we have called the internet(and DVDs). He was a member of the Dead End Kids, the leader of the East Side Kids, and the leader of the Bowery Boys. His name is Leo Gorcey
This was a man who didn't want to be an actor in the first place, but became one anyway. He landed his stage debut in 1935, and wanted $50 a performance. When he was told that there were dozens of kids who would love to play this part, he looked at the director and said "Yeah? Then go find one." He got his job.
Leo became really good friends with fellow ESK/DEK Kids Gabriel Dell and Huntz Hall. These three were the head of the prank squad when making the Dead End Kids movies(they threw fire crackers in Bogey's dressing room, and then drove Ann Sheridan's car onto one of those platform things they keep on set, or used to, in the 30s.) In fact, according to one of Gabe Dell's kids, Leo went to see Gabe before he died(I read this in the book "From Broadway to the Bowery", and cried my eyes out).
He stayed in it because people told him he was a terrible actor
and he should stop. He told them in the nicest way possible(and probably
with a great selection of four letter words) to stuff it. He left one studio after this incident and went to another where he starred in 21 movies. And when one studio didn't work anymore, he went to another one. He started his own, and made 41 of those(and co-wrote some of them, apparently. Now I want to know if he had a pseudonym, cause his name is not in the writing credits). That's 62 movies! 62!! And you know what? Call me nuts, but I think they are pretty darn amazing! The story lines are simple, and the comedy is perfectly timed, and the improv is--everywhere! That's another thing I like about him. His brain was constantly on the move. Apparently, he had to be this way with some of his movies, cause the director he was working with liked to do scenes in one take, and get the whole movie done in five days. FIVE! so he had to be thinking on his feet. And you know what? It shows!
(Note: this clip is taken from a movie Leo did when he was 48, ten years after he left acting due to the death of his father. I've heard this described two ways: that Leo and Huntz made this up while the camera was rolling or that somebody wrote this for them to say. I like to think it's the first one, cause they were both unacknowledged geniuses when it came to improv(particularly when it was just the two of them)
Another thing this man did was something that very few actors of the silver screen could do: he could tell stories with his eyes. No matter what situation he was in or who he was with, you could always tell what he was thinking. Even in the Dead End Kids movies, where the focus is on Billy Halop, you don't look at Billy Halop, you look at Leo. Because of his eyes. Don't believe me? Watch these (from the movie "Hell's Kitchen." Leo's character's name is Gyp. I think he got the lead in the following movie because of his performance in this one.):
This guy knew he had faults and acknowledged them publicly, particularly in his auto-biography. He accepted people the way they were, and wanted everybody else to return the favor. He knew what he wanted, and he went after it. He had no ego so far as acting was concerned(he considered himself the worst actor in the East Side Kids--a sentiment I whole-heartedly disagree with), and he was human enough to know when to call it quits(yes, he quit the Bowery Boys, he wasn't fired. He knew he screwed up, and he left before he could cause any more trouble). This is one person that, in spite of his faults, I would really like to meet.
