We loved this week's episode of Gossip Girl, except for one thing: No Ed Westwick!

The absence of Chuck Bass was noticeable, as we crack up just looking at the guy. Let's hear what the actor himself had to say about this great character in a recent interview:

Did you initially go in to audition for Chuck?
I think I may have gone in for Nate to start with, actually. I came in the next day and they [asked if I could read for Chuck.] To tell you the truth, I was hoping that I'd get the chance to read for Chuck because when I read the breakdowns and I read the pilot, he was the really interesting character.

At first, I think they were going to write it so that he was just a guest star, just recur, but after some thought – because my input, I like to say (laughs) – they decided to change that and make him one of the leads.

Chuck does seem to have more levels than some of the other characters. While he's cocky, a bit swarmy and certainly manipulative -- people still find him very appealing.
Chuck does a lot of things that other people would like to do – not talking about date rape and things like that – but things like being arrogant and a bit of a bastard, to tell you the truth. Maybe some people, given the opportunity, would like to behave that way, may get a kick out of being that way.

People find the bad boy appealing – I guess it's a certain fantasy about things that a lot of us don't want to do. They are naughty and they are kind of bad.

But in another way, Chuck's such an interesting person to watch – just to see what he does next. Because you can see that cunning and he calculates things – he works at Blair and gets up to mischief, so to speak. Like all good characters, I think he will show us more colors and the other thing we have to remember is that he's still young.

He's still learning things and coming into his own as a young man and he's going to go through some changes and wake up to the different ways the world can [work]. At the moment, he's kind of living it up and what he knows [is] what he's taken from his father -- how his father acts, what his father does and the way he thinks things should be.

What is the hardest thing about playing Chuck?
In the beginning, the dark side of him was so dominant. It became like it was set in stone – that was him. I had it so set in my mind that this was him - that Chuck was dark and that was how he was - that it was difficult to see how he would be if he experienced something to lighten him up, to change him.

There's a moment in "Bad News Blair," where Chuck shows his loyalty to Nate (Chace Crawford). He goes and helps Nate out in a real sticky situation that Nate gets into with illegal gambling. He goes down there and he shows that he's a stand by you kind of guy and sticks up for his best friend and shows that loyalty, shows that courage. It wasn't difficult as much as it was interesting to see what was organic and what was natural, what came out between me and the other actors.

Click here to read the full interview.

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.