Bridgerton has been the most talked about series since it’s release and it’s not only for it’s captivating storyline, but also for charming character, the Duke of Hastings, Simon Basset. The eye-candy is played by the talented Zimbabwean Regé-Jean Page.
In preparation of his role as the Duke of Hastings, Page is said to have physically trained himself, learning to box, perfecting the art of horse-riding skills, learning how to dance and carry himself in the Regency style, amongst many other things.
He also apparently worked out every single day at 5 am preparing for his steamy sex scenes – talk about dedication! First released on December 25, 2020, Bridgerton has sent social media into a frenzy and has also pushed Regé-Jean Page to stardom. A huge chunk of the period drama’s success seems to be owed to the amazing portrayal of Simon Basset by the thespian. He is fairly not a new face in the entertainment industry and his steady rise in acclaim prepared him for the fame he has acquired today.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on his breakout role he said, “I’m a huge fan of romance as a concept. Romance is a wonderful thing and we need more of it in the world.” As the Duke of Hastings, he’s at the centre of a storm of romance but only less willing to open up as he does in this interview.
“Most things at their core are love stories anyway, whether they realize it or not. It’s hilarious, the more seriously a show tries to take itself and detach itself from that, the more that the love story generally tends to come forward.”Entertainment Weekly also said that when Page learned that he’d be playing Simon’s waistcoat in Bridgerton, he thoroughly devoured the book The Duke and I, which the first season of the new Shondaland series is based. “It is so incredibly page-turning and digestible and delicious,” he quipped. “I burned through it, and at moments, it burned through me.”
Regé-Jean was born in 1990 in North London and he is a British-Zimbabwean actor. Regé didn’t spend a lot of his childhood in England though as at a very young age he moved to his mother’s native Zimbabwe where he spent his formative years before moving back to the UK at the age of 14.
The actor also touched on his early childhood days, explaining how growing up in different cultures shaped his perspective, most notably his idea of home. “Home is a relative concept,” he told Interview magazine.
“Home is very much wherever it is that your people are and where you fit in.” In some of his recent on-screen appearances, he has played the role of Chicken George in the 2016 miniseries Roots and from 2018 to 2019 was a regular cast member on the ABC legal drama For the People.”