"Bridgerton's" Regé-Jean Page Was Cast in a Star-Studded New Netflix Movie

From Oprah Magazine

• Regé-Jean Page stars as Simon Bassett, the Duke of Hastings, in the Netflix show Bridgerton.

• Speaking to OprahMag.com, the 30-year-old actor credits the dance scenes with building chemistry with co-star Phoebe Dynevor.

• Here's what you need to know about the breakout star of Bridgerton, who was recently cast in the Netflix movie The Gray Man.

I studied the periodic table in high school, but nothing could prepare me for the chemistry between Bridgerton's leads, Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page. Adapted from Julia Quinn's beloved Regency-era romance novels, the Shonda Rhimes series follows what happens when Daphne Bridgerton (Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the eight-child Bridgerton family, makes a mutually beneficial arrangement with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings (Page) to pretend to be engaged.

In addition to being the dictionary definition of "escapist binge-watch," Bridgerton is almost certainly a catapult for Page's career. His scenes with Dynevor—even the most chaste—are all infused with glowering tension. When he looks, he really looks. He's the quintessential leading man. Unsurprisingly, Page has been racking up future roles. The actor has been cast in the upcoming Netflix movie The Gray Man alongside Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, and Ana de Armas, as well as the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons movie.

Speaking to OprahMag.com, Page, 30, says the crackling connection between Simon and Daphne was formed over "hours and hours" of dance rehearsals. "I think when you spend that much time literally catching each other as you fall and flying through a room in each other’s arms, it’s a very, very efficient way to build an intimacy between performers," Page says.

Page adds that in the context of the show's 18th century setting, the dance floor was the only space where characters could be intimate with each other (before marriage, of course). "You have this space to flirt and communicate in private. Even though the eyes of the world are on you, it’s that little bubble of honesty between those two characters," he says.

Sorry, folks: Page isn't available to twirl us around a dance floor. But we can see him in other TV shows and movies. Here's what you need to know about Page, your latest Netflix obsession.

First up? Let Rege-Jean Page himself tell you how to pronounce his name.

Do not pass go before learning how to pronounce Page's name. In a 2017 Tweet, he laid out the rules. "Regé as in reggae, Jean as in Wyclef," he wrote, referring to the French pronunciation of "Jean."

Page credits his childhood in Zimbabwe with his perspective today.

In 1990, Page was born in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, to a Zimbabwean nurse and an English preacher, per Square Mile. Page said that being born to a mixed race couple in Zimbabwe made him “a walking political statement," per an interview with Interview Magazine. "Just by walking around with my face, I was saying, 'My parents did a fairly revolutionary thing that pisses off some of you,'" he said.

Speaking to The Guardian, Page elaborated on the experience. “Zimbabwe was still a relatively young country when I was living there and its post-apartheid society was only newly formed,” Page said. “Being a mixed-race child in that environment means that you have to think about crafting your own identity and you question why you belong in that world."

Growing up in Zimbabwe also gave Page a perspective that he retains to this day, even while living in L.A. "You’re also not at the center of the universe in Zimbabwe, so you watch these important places like London or New York make their decisions and you ride the ripples of that as they become waves for the rest of the world. It’s an outsider’s view that I’ve retained in my work and life today," he told The Guardian.

As a teenager in London, Page started a punk band with his brother.

When Page was 14, his family moved to north London. Page and his younger brother formed a punk band. “We were writing loud, angry, righteous guitar music and screaming at people with various colors in our hair," Page told Interview Magazine. Specifically, his hair rotated between blue, green, and purple.

The punk movement appealed to Page's sensibility back then. “As a teenager, the idea of running around, screaming at people was very appealing to me,” he told The Fall Mag. “I found comfort in aggression, in breaking through false walls and challenging norms." Speaking to Square Mile, Page revealed that he and his brother still play music to this day.

Page studied at the Drama Centre London, like Pierce Brosnan and Emilia Clarke.

According to Interview Magazine, Page had been acting as a hobby ever since he moved to the U.K. After two years of auditioning, he was accepted into the prestigious Drama Centre London, where actors like Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, and Pierce Brosnan got their starts.

“It has a reputation for being overly intense and scary and that drew my attention right way,” Page told Variety. “I learned how to be light about my work while taking it serious.” Perhaps the reputation was too intense and scary: Drama Centre London announced it was closing in March following a review into student welfare, per Arts Professional.

Speaking to Square Mile, Annie Tyson, one of Page's former professors, recalled Page's time as a student—and she gave him a rave review. “My memory is of someone elegant, charming and ferociously intelligent. As he started to work it became evident that he was determined not to rest on the qualities he had for free but was set on really finding out what he was capable of as an actor. He worked incredibly hard," Tyson said.

He was in another Shondaland show before Bridgerton.

Page played a lawyer for New York's southern district in For the People, a Shondaland show that ran for two seasons on ABC. Though the show concluded in 2019, it's available to stream.

His Instagram has many behind-the-scenes shots.

He's best known for playing Chicken George in the Roots remake.

After graduating, Page was in a few British TV shows, like Waterloo Road, Casualty, and Fresh Meat. In 2016, Page made his American TV debut with Roots, a remake of the 1977 miniseries on the History Channel. Roots is a period drama of a much different variety than Bridgerton. Whereas Bridgerton is set in a "heightened reality" that's dreamier than real life, Roots is grounded in the horrors of history—specifically, the U.S.'s legacy of slavery.

"Holding your humanity and humanity against incredible opposition and brutality—that will always be relevant," Page said of the remake in a promotional video for A&E. Speaking to GoldDerby, Page revealed that he wrote essays about his character, Chicken George, to inform all of his scenes.

Page definitely isn't dating Bridgerton co-star Phoebe Dynevor—but likely has a girlfriend.

When the show came out, Bridgerton fans speculated that Page was dating his Bridgerton co-star, Dynevor. Speaking to Access Hollywood, both Page and Dynevor gently shut down those rumors. "I think everything you need to know is on camera. That's why we presented it so beautifully for you," said Page. "All the sparks that flew off of the beautiful scripts that we were handed, and so I think that the sparky scripted material are more than enough."

Page hasn't commented publicly on his relationship status. However, in February 2021, the actor was spotted embracing soccer player Emily Brown, his rumored girlfriend, outside their London apartment, Page Six reports.

Want more Regé-Jean Page? You can follow him on Instagram.

Bridgerton is only ten episodes, but Page's Instagram keeps going—and its contents are far from the regency world of the Netflix show. There, you'll find close-up footage of Page's earring (which doesn't show up in Bridgerton, of course).

And pictures of Page rocking a mask–staying safe and stylish.

Here's what we know for sure: We're on the Regé-Jean Page beat from here on out.

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