Ed Westwick on 'Gossip Girl' co-star Leighton Meester: 'I miss her dearly'

HBO Max tried to capitalize on the perennial Gossip Girl nostalgia with a proper reboot, but nothing can ever come close to the OG cast reminiscing on the seminal series.

Dropped Wednesday (Feb. 2), the newest episode of Jessica Szohr's XOXO podcast featured Ed Westwick, who played television's favorite bad boy Chuck Bass—Blair Waldorf's (Leighton Meester) on-and-off love and eventual husband.

"She's an incredible talent," Westwick said of Meester. "I miss her dearly. We just had this incredible chemistry. We used to make each other laugh, and I felt protective over her at times. She probably made me better."

The 34-year-old British actor added: "It felt special. I didn't have to fake that too much. I'm not saying I was in love with Leighton or whatever, but like, it didn't feel [forced]. I mean, look, she's a beautiful girl. She's an incredible actress."

Additionally, Westwick shared that his French bulldog puppy's name Humphrey is "completely unrelated to Gossip Girl" and was instead named after Humphrey Bogart. (Dan Humphrey, played by Penn Badgley, was Chuck's rival for much of the show's run.)

Listen to the full 45-minute conversation below.