Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In recently looking for a light, non-depressing movie to watch, I settled on Chalet Girl, currently available on Netflix. It stars our next Star Wars hero, Felicity Jones, as a working class gal who ends up landing a job at a vacation home for a rich family that includes Mr. Chuck Bass himself, Ed Westwick.
The film served two purposes: 1) It is most certainly light and non-depressing, unless you are recovering from a snowboarding accident, and 2) From the second Westwick appeared on screen, I couldn’t help but think, “Hey, where you been?” Because where HAS he been? Obviously, our lives were changed forever after Gossip Girl, but as arguably the breakout star of the drama series, why haven’t we seen him nearly a fraction of the time we’ve seen his co-star Blake Lively’s baby bump?
Chalet Girl was released in 2011, during Westwick’s Gossip Girl days, when things were looking good. He had a part in J. Edgar with Leonardo DiCaprio, and once GG ended in 2012, it seemed as though the sky was the limit for him. His first movie after the show was Romeo & Juliet in 2013 with Hailee Steinfeld where he plays…Tybalt? Not even Romeo? Unfortunately, it only gets weirder.
In 2015, he was in Bone in the Throat, the film version of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s novel, and horror comedy Freaks of Nature, which allowed him to really load up on the eye makeup. Things were starting to look up when he was cast in the 2015 ABC series Wicked City, and then immediately looked back down when it lasted only 3 episodes on the air. Oof. How is this possible? The same man who played Chuck Bass, a character who kept us on our toes every week with his business ordeals, and even more intrigued with his love life, isn’t turning out to be a larger-than-life movie star? It just doesn’t add up.
There’s some good news. First, he’s on Instagram, and that is exciting. We get a peek at his life and his playlists and his Blue Steel stares, and that’s something we can all appreciate. Second, Gossip Girl (and Chalet Girl, for that matter) are fully available on Netflix and serve as perfect reminders of just how well this man can smolder on screen. Third, we are getting a new Ed Westwick movie this week.
That’s right, Billionaire Ransom is available in theaters and on VOD this Friday, 8/19, and is about rich kids who are sent away to reform camp and must fight back against criminals that have taken them hostage. We all know Westwick can play a rich kid better than anyone else, but in this movie, he’s one of the criminals. By the looks of the trailer, we’ll get to see him play a bit of a badass — how could that go wrong?
Let’s be honest, we’ll take whatever we can get from Westwick. He still has the film Jekyll Island coming later this year, so it’s not like he’s entirely staying home and sitting on his couch. It’s just that Gossip Girl set him up for what could’ve been an interesting career and it’s annoying to not see it roll out quite that way just yet. Now, it appeared he was geared up to travel down a rom-com leading man path, and perhaps he had 0 interest in that whatsoever. Maybe nailing the role of Chuck Bass caused him to be typecast so much that no other roles were headed his way. If so, shame on you, Hollywood.
Bottom line, this is an actor that has a pretty solid fanbase, can play a leading man, and has a face that isn’t hard to look at, is all. It’s time for him to have a hit. If Eddie decided to take some time to live life away from the cameras, good for him. But if he’s sitting around waiting for his phone to ring, someone better make that happen.
