Ed Westwick opened up astir his onscreen chemistry with Leighton Meester—aka the Blair to his Chuck. On the Feb. 2 occurrence of the XOXO podcast, helium admitted, "I had an astonishing clip moving with Leighton. And radical truly were taken with that relationship. It means truthful overmuch to people, which is truthful cute and funny." 

As for his existent dynamic with Leighton, helium shared, "She's an unthinkable talent. I miss her dearly. We conscionable had this large chemistry, and we utilized to marque each different laughter and I felt protective implicit her astatine times. Yeah, she astir apt made maine better."

Ed and co-star Chace Crawford (Nate) got other close, due to the fact that they really lived unneurotic for the archetypal 2 years of filming.

As Ed revealed successful February, "Chace and I agreed to unrecorded unneurotic connected the pilot. He was like, 'Do you privation to country together?' I'd ne'er lived extracurricular my parents' location and I was like, 'Yeah, sure, whatever.'"

The British histrion explained, "He went and looked astatine immoderate places, and helium sent maine the strangest photos. It was similar the country of a ceiling with a small spot of the floor." Laughing, Ed noted, "I was like, 'Alright, sure. Whatever dude, looks fine!' And truthful we lived unneurotic for the archetypal 2 years."

Gossip Girl casting manager David Rapaport dished about the Gossip Girl spinoff centered connected Serena's mom, Lily van der Woodsen, with a pilot that starred Brittany Snow and Krysten Ritter. "I retrieve for that Dakota Johnson came successful and Rooney Mara, and a batch of different women who are present benignant of large names but astatine the clip didn't person that benignant of stature," helium recalled of the casting process.

He told host Jessica Szohr, "And you cognize who did the champion work for that? I'll archer you, due to the fact that I deliberation you're friends with Nina Dobrev, that was 1 of the champion auditions I had ever seen, and for that relation specifically."

David said helium called the web and told them, "She is simply a ace star." As helium recalled connected the podcast years later, "She does not look similar Kelly Rutherford, due to the fact that she was expected to beryllium a young Kelly Rutherford, truthful I don't cognize however we would formed her, but she needs to beryllium connected your radar and you guys request to find thing for her. I conscionable retrieve thinking, 'I americium going to deliberation astir this miss successful a mates of years and beryllium like, 'Oh god, I missed that opportunity.' She was truthful incredible!"

As Ed shared connected the XOXO podcast connected Feb. 2, "Chuck Bass was expected to beryllium a reoccurring relation and was lone expected to travel successful for a fewer episodes."

The histrion said helium feels "lucky" that the mogul became a bigger portion of the show, adding of his audition process, "I benignant of got astir 1 of the investigating aspects there, due to the fact that I didn't person to trial similar a bid regular. I did 2 auditions and past a surface trial but I ne'er had to trial for network." 

Is this considered a meet-cute? Gossip Girl showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage knew that they had recovered Vanessa Abrams erstwhile Adam Brody, who they had worked with connected The O.C., brought Jessica Szohr on arsenic a impermanent to a Fourth of July excavation party.

Stephanie said connected an occurrence of XOXO with Jessica Szohr that she and Josh instantly ran to a computer—after all, this happened each earlier the iPhone came out—and Googled Jessica to spot if she was an actress.

Fortunately for the pair, she is!

According to Josh, casting Ed Westwick successful the bid "was a full situation." Not lone had the English histrion initially auditioned for the portion of Nate Archibald and mislaid it to Chace Crawford, but his relation of Chuck Bass astir went to idiosyncratic other arsenic well.

"He got formed arsenic Chuck and past couldn't get his visa to travel sprout successful the U.S. successful time, due to the fact that helium was a citizens of the U.K.," Josh recalled connected an occurrence of the XOXO with Jessica Szohr podcast, adding that the web was pressuring him to recast the part.

"They were saying to america arsenic we got person and person to commencement of the pilot, 'Guys, you request to fig retired who your back-up Chuck is gonna beryllium due to the fact that we don't deliberation this is gonna enactment out,'" Josh remembered. "And we were conscionable like, ‘There is nary backup Chuck. It's Ed.'"

Since Josh and his co-creator, Stephanie, were adamant connected having Ed play Chuck, the web waited for his visa to get approved.

When Penn Badgley was auditioning for the portion of Dan Humphrey, helium was rocking what Josh and Stephanie recalled arsenic long, "snowboarder" locks. The histrion ended up chopping astir of it disconnected connected his archetypal time of filming, shocking the unit and web execs.

"Everybody was like, ‘What is happening?! He shaved his head!'" Josh recalled. However, erstwhile they each saw the caller ‘do, everyone agreed: "Oh damn, helium looks good."

For the creators, the past country of the pilot—in which Blair (Leighton) and Chuck (Ed) look connected arsenic the Humphreys leave a enactment with Serena (Blake)—was the kick-off constituent of the iconic couple's relationship.

"There was conscionable a transportation betwixt them...that was instantly so palpable and fun," Josh said of the scene. "That was wherever it benignant of truly archetypal landed."

"It was similar a revelation to watch," Stephanie added. "It's similar Dangerous Liaisons. It's similar Valmont and Merteuil...they emotion each different but they hatred each other, and they bash schemes together. That was specified a juicy communicative to thin into."