Neal Bledsoe Dishes on Kissing Ed Westwick

How quickly things change.

In what seems like an instant, Neal Bledsoe went from an unknown to the guy who will make out with Ed Westwick in a scandalous smooch on Gossip Girl.

The same-sex kiss doesn’t air until October 19, but Neal Bledsoe - who plays a gay NYU alumni Blair pimps boyfriend Chuck out to - dished on it to EW.

Here's his interview with the website:

Q: How has your life changed in the past week?

Neal Bledsoe: My mom is certainly a thousand times more proud of me. And it was my first experience with the paparazzi knowing my name, which was strange. I thought maybe Neil Diamond or Neil Sedaka was standing behind me.

Q: Tell me about your character.

Neal Bledsoe: Initially I was supposed to play the dean of the freshman class. But then they hired a 28-year-old actor so that seemed like a bit of a stretch.

Now I play a lawyer who is a very well connected alumni at the university who has a hand in deciding who is going to give the famous freshman speech.

Q: An honor you agree to extend to Blair in exchange for the kiss. Is it as simple as you just wanting to say you made out with the legendary Chuck Bass?

Neal Bledsoe: I will tell you this: I have a very unexpected and darker motivation about it.

Q: Was shooting the kiss awkward?

Neal Bledsoe: No. We were both professionals about it. [It helped] that we got to know each other a little bit beforehand. And we certainly rehearsed it.

Q: Rehearsed it? How many takes did you do?

Neal Bledsoe: [Laughs] More than a few.

Q: How would you characterize the kiss? Steamy? A little peck?

Neal Bledsoe: I would characterize it as a nice kiss.

Q: Complete this sentence: Ed Westwick kisses just like ...

Neal Bledsoe: [Laughs] ... he kisses just like Chuck Bass.

Q: What did your girlfriend think?

Neal Bledsoe: She was happy I wasn’t kissing any of the girls on the show. She might’ve had some Blake Lively envy.

Q: At what point in the process did you find out about the kiss?

Neal Bledsoe: There was an asterisk on the character breakdown that said, "Actor must kiss Ed Westwick in the episode."

Q: Your first reaction?

Neal Bledsoe: 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.

Q: Might your character return at some point?

Neal Bledsoe: I have no idea. That’s up to the writers.

Q: Where do you go from here?

Neal Bledsoe: I don’t think I’d be breaking my confidentially agreement by saying this: I’m going to be in the Sex and the City movie sequel.

Q: Who are you playing?

Neal Bledsoe: Um ... It’s a character in the Sex and the City sequel.