Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick SLAMMED as ‘the worst’ by Russian actress as she alleges ‘weird’ on set behavior

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Russian actress Polina Nioly Pushkareva publicly criticized Ed Westwick, calling him the most difficult celebrity she’s ever collaborated with.

Blake Lively, 38, and Ryan Reynolds, 28, collaborated on the 2024 thriller DarkGame. Lively was an executive producer and actress in the film, while Reynolds starred in it.

This weekend, Pushkareva shared two TikTok videos detailing what she described as the actor’s strange conduct during filming and a particularly awkward scene involving a simulated death.

She admitted that while she had a childhood crush on the actor’s character, Chuck Bass, from Gossip Girl, she didn’t enjoy working with him in reality.

Pushkareva funded the film with a $350,000 investment, but Westwick ignored her on the very first day of filming.

The actress stated that he wouldn’t practice the scene with her and never talked about how he was going to touch her face while they were filming.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Westwick’s representatives for comment. 

Pushkareva recounted that Westwick didn’t bother to introduce himself on the first day of filming, and instead gave her a strange look.

She wasn’t sure why he acted that way, but she wondered if it had to do with her being a woman and the fact that she was financially supporting him. She described it as a strange display of ego, and said the whole situation felt really odd.

I approached him directly because I’m a pop artist, and I introduced myself. We had a scene to film together, so I asked him about when we would start preparing for it.

‘He says he doesn’t have to prepare because he’s a good actor,’ she claimed.

She then inserted a clip of Westwick from Gossip Girl as a reminder of his acting.

My assistant was standing right beside me, and she was completely shocked, exclaiming how incredibly funny the situation was. Apparently, even famous actors meticulously prepare for every scene – and that’s essentially what my job entails.

Pushkareva found the scene emotionally challenging as a new actress, mainly because her character is killed during it.

She posted a video of the moment, explaining that after Westwick removed her mask, he started touching her face.

A basic rule of acting is to never physically touch another actor without first asking permission and giving them a warning, particularly if the touch might be uncomfortable.

She stated that Westwick refused to be involved in any of the promotional videos her team created.

Okay, so, Ed Westwick hasn’t really had a hit since Gossip Girl, let’s be real. And honestly, my whole job is making money through social media – I run a company built on that! So naturally, we were all over promoting his new movie. It just… made sense, you know? I’m a huge fan, and I need to make money, it’s a win-win!

I spent ages crafting a massive social media plan – over a hundred video ideas, actually! I was so excited and sent everything over to Ed and his team, but unfortunately, they didn’t approve a single one. It was really disappointing after all that work.

Pushkareva followed up, saying, “He said he’d take a picture with me.” She then added sarcastically, “Thank you, Ed Westwick, for agreeing to take a picture with a regular woman like me… for 350,000 [presumably rubles or another currency].”

The really funny part is that a few months later, he used one of our ideas – complete with a reference to Gossip Girl – in a post on his page.

After that happened, I immediately stopped having a crush on him. Even months later, while we were filming, he kept repeatedly following and unfollowing me on Instagram, which became a running joke among my coworkers.

I obviously upset him, and honestly, neither I nor the entire team working on the film could figure out what caused his reaction.

In her second video, she explained the challenges of promoting the film. Despite Ed Westwick having millions of followers, they struggled to generate much interest in it.

She said that her and Westwick ‘absolutely hated each other’ on set.

Pushkareva explained that she and her company made a dedicated account for the film. Using her existing audience of 1.2 million followers, they were able to attract 12,000 new followers to the account.

She alleges that Ed and his team made a second account for the film, which she found very strange.

He had 10 million followers at the time and promoted the movie around 20 times. He told his followers that he would share their stories if they tagged both the movie’s account and him in their posts.

She claims he only got 20 followers for the new account.

She explained that she started making her videos more personal, sharing the challenges she faced raising $350,000 to fund the film and the difficulty of portraying a deceased character. She believes this vulnerability helps her audience connect with her on a deeper emotional level.

Having a large social media following doesn’t guarantee financial success if you don’t know how to effectively use those platforms.

DarkGame was released in December of 2024, and left Netflix fans divided.

While many thriller and horror fans enjoyed the movie, some viewers found the script and acting to be very poor, leaving them confused and disappointed.

In the Howard Ford-directed film, Ed Westwick plays Detective Ben Jacobs, who must hurry to rescue people held hostage in a disturbing game show broadcast only on the dark web.

A disturbing new game show kidnaps people and forces them to compete in a deadly contest. This competition is streamed online on the dark web – a hidden part of the internet – where viewers can bet on who will survive.

Since its release, DarkGame has been given a measly 34 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

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2025-11-17 04:19