'Broody, Wounded, And Charming': Regé-Jean Page Is Bridgerton's Dazzling Duke

By Sara Radin


Bridgerton, the new period romance from Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, mixes all of the rather stylized drama of Grace Mercy West Hospital with the pomp and powdered wigs of Regency Era England, as eight siblings duke it out for love, status, and, well, dukes. Yet as soon as once a controlling older brother comes between young aesthetics Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dyneover) plus a superior suitor, causing her to fall out of favor with the queen and one particularly biting gossip columnist, she hatches a plan to redeem herself in the eyes of society. She strikes a deal with Duke Simon Bassett, a determined bachelor with a playboy reputation, to pretend to be madly in love. She hopes the handsome facade will spark jealousy in possible husbands; he hopes it will curb the pressure to marry from his aunt, Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh).


Cool and serious, even any time wearing a brocade waistcoat, the duke is played by the 30-year-old actor Regé-Jean Page, who originally hails from Zimbabwe and moved to London as a teenager. Cutting his teeth in the city’s theater scene, his small-screen break came in 2015 because the unlucky teacher Guy Braxton on the popular British series Waterloo Road, and he cinched the lead role of Chicken George in the Emmy-winning drama Roots the following year. Bridgerton is his second Shondaland production, after the courtroom thriller For the People. Though Page says he had to suppress his own sense of humor to bring the dashing yet sometimes cold Duke Bassett to life, his joy radiated by means of the screen of a recent Zoom call as he expressed how much of a privilege it has been to be segment of this production. “The man does not permit himself the happiness that he has so much access to just sort of right around the corner,” he says of the character. “It reinforced the value of a sense of humor to me.”


A visual feast of decorative parlor rooms and glamorous ball gowns based on Julia Quinn’s popular book series The Duke and I, Bridgerton has all of the cozy trappings of your next Netflix binge. Meanwhile, with his striking good looks and solid acting chops, Page is star — as well as a heartthrob — on the rise. Ahead of the drama’s release on Christmas Day (December 25), MTV News sits down with Regé-Jean Page to learn about his acting journey, finding the humanity in his “broody” character, and the ideal, couch-ready outfit for streaming Bridgerton on Netflix.


MTV News: How did you get into acting? What was it about acting that interested you?


Regé-Jean Page: While I was a kid, I wanted to be an explorer. I wanted to go out into deep, dark jungle somewhere and find places in the world that hadn't been discovered. Although then I discovered two things. One, that most of the world had already been visited and two, that would involve encountering entirely also several, very large spiders. So the next best thing, in my mind, was acting.


I got to explore people. I got to explore different ways of life, different places, different jobs, different ways of thinking. It was like the thing that gave me the most access to the most different types of people. And then at some point, sort of halfway through university, I discovered that people pay for that in the event you do it really well. And I was like, wait, you could make a living out of this? So I gave that a go and, so far, it usually be going right.


MTV News: Right now I'd like to be an actor.


Page: It's also long and tiring miserable and yes it rains on you all of the time, yet you should keep going.


MTV News: How would you summarize what Bridgerton is about?


Page: Bridgerton is a lot like the period dramas that you know and love, however nothing like it's forerunner. It’s faster, funny, sexier, and more glamorous. It's a little Jane Austen with a touch of Gossip Girl and maybe Fifty Shades of Gray.


MTV News: I love period films and TV shows, the costumes and everything. It seems like such an awesome show.


Page: Well, I mean, I think the joy of If I finally saw the trailer is how indulgent we managed to get it. It's like, yes, you love your period dramas, however also with fireworks and more color and more glamour and more dances and more romance and more heartbreak. It's all over that, nevertheless bigger and thrown via Fourth of July.


MTV News: How would you describe Duke Simon Bassett in several words?


Page: Broody, wounded, and charming.


MTV News: What are a few of the challenges your character endures? Were there any experiences to which you can relate?


Page: Simon's a fairly usual, tall, dark, mysterious, damaged man — an anti-hero. I think, like a lot of males, a lot of his problems are of his own making. He has a lot of pride. He has a lot of walls and defenses up. He thinks that the only way to be strong is to be dominant in all characteristic. The lessons that he learns about finding strength and vulnerability and being able to love and be loved, this is sort of the show. This is the stuff of romance fantasies and, luckily, that's what we're making. Although I think that those lessons are fairly universal and most guys, if they permit themselves, can probably relate to that. And I'll confess that I did a little, too.


MTV News: Was there anything specific you did to make for this role?


Page: I'm not sure there’s anything I didn't do for this role. They had us in infinite preparations and classes. We had etiquette lessons, body language lessons, writing lessons, boxing lessons, so several dance classes. Although everything is communication. Everything is how people communicate with one another and why they express themselves.


MTV News: Sounds jam-packed.


Page: It was. It was a lot, it was intense, yet it was worth the experience.


MTV News: Was there anything you learned about yourself?


Page: One of the most difficult things about Simon was suppressing a sense of humor for about six months at a time. The man does not permit himself the happiness that he has so much access to just sort of right around the corner, just in back of the door. It reinforced the value of a sense of humor to me.


MTV News: How does it feel to be piece of such an exhilarating production, one that was created by Shonda Rhimes?


Page: It's a big deal for a lot of people that I know and love and work with. It was incredibly exhilarating. It's huge. They've pulled zero punches with this. At one point, we had a bigger crew than Star Wars. There really is nothing on a higher level of ambition than this show at the moment, and it's a real privilege to be at the center of that.


MTV News: Tell me a little about the clothes you had to wear. What was it like transforming yourself into this person from another era?


Page: Stubborn, mostly. Very restrictive and tight, yet very glamorous. The wardrobe is extravagant and glamorous. It's a little like walking into a room with, I don't know, Rihanna and Beyoncé.


MTV News: What are some of your future career aspirations? Is there a specific character you'd like play?


Page: Honestly, my main go to thing about this job is being surprised. The roles that I appreciate are the types of roles I couldn't have thought per year ago. I like the fact that, as an actor, one day I can be the president. I can be an astronaut. And the day right after, I can travel 200 years into the past. I like that I get to access parts of the world and people that I don't understand and then get to understand them through [acting]. And I hope that's what you also share with a group while you do the job right. So the best role I'd like could be one that I couldn't even put into [words]. I don't actually know if it exists.


MTV News: What do you hope people take away from watching the series?


Page: An awful lot of fun. It’s such a lovely, warm, huge, glamorous, romantic, loving place to escape to. It's this big warm hug for Christmas. So I hope that they put slippers on, put on a nice warm slanket, and escape into the wonders of Bridgerton.