Chace blushes at being called sexy

“Oh, how sweet of you!”

Is that how a Hollywood hunk would react to being considered one of the world’s sexiest?

Yes, that’s how Chace Crawford said when told by a group of international journalists at a round-table interview for What To Expect When You’re Expecting, the Lionsgate comedy-romance inspired by Heidi Murkoff’s best-seller self-help book for pregnant women. The movie opens tomorrow nationwide, released locally by Pioneer Films.

In the movie, Chace plays Marco, a food-truck chef who gets his business rival Rosie (played by Anna Kendrick, see story below) pregnant not long after they become friends but even before they have their first date.

“Thank you for considering me one,” Chace said, blushing a bit, making the journalists laugh along with him. “It makes me nervous, really, but thank you just the same.”

Of course, followers of the hit US TV show Gossip Girl (GG) will put Chace on top of any “sexiest list,” including Krista Ranillo who named her and husband Niño Jefferson Lim’s first-born Nate Jacob after the Chace’s GG character Nate Archibald, the handsome only child of a wealthy and well-known family in turmoil. “Chace is my favorite actor,” said Krista who is expecting her and Niño’s second child, also a boy (according to the ultrasound). “I love the name Nate and, siempre, Archibald which happens to be the real name of my father, Archie (Mat Ranillo III).” (Trivia: Chace’s GG co-star Ed Westwick was here last year to shoot for Penshoppe of which he’s among the A-list endorsers, including Zac Efron.)

He showed up in denims and simple T-shirt at a function room of Four Seasons, the same venue where the previous day’s general presscon was held but including only the female cast like, aside from Anna, Jennifer Lopez (subject of last Sunday’s Conversations With Ricky Lo), Elizabeth Banks and Cameron Diaz (featured in Conversations on Sunday, May 20). Still, even in casuals, Chace looked sexy, what her fans would describe as to-die-for (ask Krista), never mind if he downplayed his “being sexy.”

Before What To Expect When You’re Expecting and Gossip Girl, Chace starred in Joel Schumacher’s Twelve (2010) as a young drug dealer whose high-rolling life is dismantled after his cousin is murdered. “I’m clean-living,” volunteered Chace who grew up in Plano, Texas. “I don’t do drugs.” His first big break was in The Covenant and he will be seen next in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding with Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Olsen and Jane Fonda.

Asked how he deals with the loss of privacy and the paparazzi, Chace admitted, “It’s a bizarre by-product of the business. It’s not as bad in New York, where we shoot Gossip Girl, as it is in L.A. where I now live. It happens but,” he shrugged, “I guess you just have to accept that it’s there. But definitely, I wouldn’t like somebody sticking outside my house or trying to crush into my window. It’s weird!”

Anything else that he had to sacrifice for stardom?

“Hmmmmm,” Chace added, “now I have to be careful. I just can’t go out of the house naked like I used to do.”

How very restricting! So how does he usually enjoy his time away from the limelight (if he ever is, that is)?

“Well, I try to have time for myself. Recently, I went to Dallas for a couple of weeks to play golf and waited around for my nephew to come out, which he did. Otherwise, I’d rather stay home than go out.”

And who does he look up to as role model?

“Oh, Paul Newman! I’ve seen his movies. I just love him in any role he played.”

At what point in his life did he realize that he wanted to be an actor?

“I always loved film since I was a kid. I’ve been fascinated with the works of Fellini and other great filmmakers, so I guess the desire to be an actor came very early in my life. But in school, I kind of had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew older. I was good in football and I thought everybody was good in music except me. I’m glad I ended up an actor.”

Anyway, not wanting to be typecast in his Gossip Girl character, Chace said that he hopes to expand his horizon and keep growing.

“I need to change my look and try other kinds of roles,” he explained. “I can’t be Nate Archibald forever.”

Now, the “crucial question.” I told Chace that his Filipino female fans would like to know what kind of girls turn him on.

“Hmmm, that crazy question always comes up. No, I don’t really have a stereotype. I know who she is when I see her.”

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