There Was Plenty of Rehearsing for Chuck Bass’ Gay Kiss

It can be hard for a young-ish, unrecognized actor to make a name for himself. Luckily, a same-sex kisses changes all that, like it did for Neal Bledsoe.

With only bit parts on CSI, Law & Order, and Guiding Light, Bledsoe is a nobody in Hollywood. When his Gossip Girl character’s gay kiss with Ed Westwick’s Chuck Bass airs Oct. 19, that will change.

And Bledsoe is just fine with that.

“There was an asterisk on the character breakdown that said, ‘Actor must kiss Ed Westwick in the episode,’” Bledsoe recalls to EW about learning what his Gossip Girl character would be doing. “[My girlfriend] was happy I wasn’t kissing any of the girls on the show. She might’ve had some Blake Lively envy.”

So what’s it like to become what’s arguably “just another” gay male kiss on television? As mundane as it should be. “Things like that shouldn’t matter. Unfortunately for some actors things like that do matter and they’ll turn down projects because of it. I thought it was a really fun episode. I had an awesome time doing it. And I think it would’ve been a shame if I was not open-minded enough to do the episode simply because I had to kiss another man.”

Nice to hear. And for the record, he and Bass rehearsed the kiss. Several times.

And? And you’ll next see Bledsoe in the Sex and the City sequel. Not making out with Mario Cantone, we surmise.