Chuck Bass
| Chuck Bass File:Chuck gossip.jpg | |||||||||||||
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| Gossip Girl character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Ed Westwick | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | Book Series: Gossip Girl TV Series: Pilot | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Book Series: Don't You Forget About Me | ||||||||||||
| Created by | Cecily von Ziegesar | ||||||||||||
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Charles Bartholomew Bass, better known as Chuck Bass, is a character in the best-selling Gossip Girl series of novels, and is portrayed by Ed Westwick in the television series of the same name. A secondary, antagonistic character in the original book series, Chuck is a main character in the television series, and serves as the show's antihero.
Book series background
Born Charles Bartholomew Bass, he was raised in Manhattan's most elite social circles. He is the son of the wealthy Bartholomew Bass and his wife Misty and has a sibling named Donald. Bass and his family reside at the Plaza Hotel on the Upper East Side. Chuck Bass is a student at Riverside Preparatory School for Boys on the Upper West Side with scholarship student Dan Humphrey. He is shown as being the playboy of the series, interested in sex, money, and nothing more. He's virtually friendless, but accepted by the others since his parents are in the "in" crowd. He wears a monogrammed scarf and owns a pet monkey named Sweetie, a gift from Georgina Sparks. In the final book, Greg and Dan Humphrey date briefly. Dan thinks Greg isn’t right for him, and goes to tell him, except Greg beats him to the punch, leaving Dan for Chuck. At the end of the series, Chuck winds up being sent to military school in West Point because he didn't get accepted into any other colleges he applied to. In the Gossip Girl spin-off - The Carlyles, we find out through Gossip Girl's website that Chuck never made it to West Point.
TV series background
Chuck Bass was born to Bart Bass, a self-made billionaire who owns the New York Palace Hotel, where the two reside. Bass attends St. Jude's School for boys with best friend Nate Archibald, and enemy Dan Humphrey. Like in the book series, he is very interested in sex and money, though has more of a heart in the TV series.
Season 1
Chuck grew up with Upper East Side elites Nate Archibald, Blair Waldorf, and Serena van der Woodsen. His father is Bart Bass, an entrepreneur, a successful businessman, who made a name for himself, rather than being born into money like Chuck’s friends’ parents. Chuck, unlike his father, was born into money, and therefore can be expected to take things for granted, like most of his peers do. Chuck is often described as the bad boy of his circle, and although he can be manipulative, we learn that he has a sensitive and caring side to him, especially for those he cares about like his best friend Nate and Nate's girlfriend Blair Waldorf.
Chuck tends to be the playboy, and even tried to hit on Serena, but his lust for her quickly fizzled out. He also tried to sleep with Jenny Humphrey, but was quickly stopped by her brother Dan Humphrey, who happens to be Serena’s boyfriend. Chuck was the only one who knew about Serena and Nate’s affair, but didn't tell anyone until after Serena came back, at the brunch his father was hosting.
Chuck is shown as being fiercely loyal to his best friend, Nate Archibald. When Nate leaves Chuck's party angry and frustrated, Chuck winds up rescuing him from Carter Baizen and a risky poker game. He has also said that the only things that matter to him are money, the pleasures money can buy him, and Nate. Although this can be contested, he clearly cares very deeply for Blair Waldorf. After a breaking up with Nate Blair spends the evening with Chuck, upon returning home Blair loses her virginity to Chuck in his limo. Chuck confesses his feelings for Blair on her seventeenth birthday, claiming that he feels sick and cannot sleep for thinking about her and their night together.
Chuck's relationship with Blair continues into the debutante ball but the two try to keep things out of the public eye, mostly because Chuck and Blair do not want to hurt Nate. Chuck seeing that Nate has reawakened his fancy for Blair starts panicking that he will lose her, he thus attempts to manipulate things in his own favour -- to become Blair's knight in shining amour. Sadly his plan backfires and rather tragically, leads to Chuck inadvertently casting himself in the role of villain in Blair's eyes. As a consequence, Blair ends up sleeping with Nate at the end of the debutante ball, which Chuck sees. A heart broken Chuck leaves NYC for a time in order to avoid the pain of seeing Nate and Blair together.
Upon his return to NYC, Chucks jealously takes hold and he holds his secret relationship with Blair over Blair's head by threatening that if she is intimate with Nate at all, he will tell Nate about their relationship. This grows old with Blair and she dares him to tell Nate; she believes that Nate will never believe Chuck over her and this conversation is caught on tape by Vanessa Abrams. In an effort to get back into Blair's good graces, Chuck buys what he thinks is the tape off Vanessa. In actuality, he bought a blank tape while Vanessa gave the real one to Blair free of charge.
Seeing that his plan has failed to bring Blair back to him, he writes an anonymous text to Gossip Girl detailing that Blair has slept with someone other than Nate. The news spreads quickly and ruins Blair, and comes back to haunt him. After seeing the Gossip Girl news about Blair, Nate asks Jenny if it is true, and Jenny tells him that Chuck slept with Blair. As a result, Nate and Chuck have an explosive fight outside the school and Nate ends their friendship. At the end of the day, with no one to turn to, Blair returns to Chuck, but he rejects her, trying to remain loyal to Nate, telling her that she was beautiful to him once, perfect. But not any longer.
In the mean time, Chuck's father and Serena's mother have become engaged, causing them to become stepsiblings.
After a week of Spring Break, Chuck becomes a pain for Serena, mainly because he has been smoking in her bathroom. He also tries to take Eric under his wing and eventually become a brother figure to Eric. During a dinner with the van der Woodsens, while they opened wedding gifts, Serena opens an anonymous box, which contains pornography, this makes Serena angry at him and surprising Dan (he allowed Dan to stay, which would be considered unusual, as Dan antagonizes him). He had a talk with his father where his father was considering Chuck as his best man, but will change his mind if he pulls another stunt. Chuck tries to reason that he did not send Serena the pornography, but was bribed into "behaving" before he could continue explaining. The next day, Serena was sent a Champagne crate to school and she suspects him. The final suspicion was when a bag with cocaine was sent as well. Chuck was kicked out the hotel room, before Serena was to berate him. Eventually it turned out that it was not Chuck but Georgina Sparks, a Ghost from Serena`s troubled past that was sending the gifts.
Chuck helps Serena along with his two of his enemies. Ex-bestfriend, Nate and ex-lover Blair. Blair tries to get Serena to tell them what has happened in episode 17 "Woman on the Verge." Blair says, "I had sex with Chuck in the back of a limo." And he adds on, "Several times." Then Nate goes, "I had sex with you at a wedding while her date." Nate is referring to he and Serena having sex at a wedding before mysteriously heading off to boarding school. He glares at Chuck before going, "Once." When it is Chuck's turn to 'confess' he thinks before going, "I'm Chuck Bass." He uses this line often such as in the third episode where when they are choosing ushers for college reps. He is asked why he should be a rep and goes, "Because I'm Chuck Bass."
Differences between the novels and TV series
- In the book series, Chuck attends Riverside Prep on the Upper West Side with Dan Humphrey, while Nate attends St. Jude's; In the TV series, all three attend St. Jude's.
- In the books, Chuck is described as bisexual, while in the show he’s a ladies man.
- In the books, Chuck’s parents are Bart Bass and Misty Bass, while in the show, his mother is mentioned once, but never has appeared.
- In the books, he never actually keeps a girlfriend, and only sleeps around, while in the show, he starts a secret relationship with Blair.
- Chuck is tolerated by the other main characters in the book, but doesn’t really have any real friends. In the show, he’s really close with Nate, and Blair too, even before he and Blair become romantic.
- Chuck has a pet monkey named Sweetie in the books, but not in the show.
- In the books he has a brother named Donald Bass and a cousin named Harold aka Harry Bass. He has no siblings on the show.
- While in the novels, Chuck is depicted as a completely one-sided morally bankrupt character, he is shown as someone with hidden feelings and a somewhat likeable character in the show.,
Relationships
Book Series
- Serena van der Woodsen (forced)
- Donetella Contessa (fling)
- Tiphany (fling)
- Jenny Humphrey (forced)
- Kati Frakas (fling)
- Katie Soave (fling)
- Georgina Sparks (fling)
- All Male-Dutch Snowboarding team (fling)
- Greg (boyfriend)
TV Series
- Blair Waldorf
- Start Up: Victor, Victrola (107)
- Broke Up: Hi Society (110)
- Reason: Blair learns that Chuck lied to Nate, causing a scene at her debutante ball.
- Georgina Sparks
- Fling
- Lost his virginity to her in the 6th Grade
- Fling
