Regé-Jean Page Didn't Want His Family to Be "Overwhelmed" by His Sexy 'Bridgerton' Scenes

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During a June 16th roundtable discussion for The Hollywood Reporter with fellow actors Josh O'Connor, Chris Rock, Jonathan Majors, and John Boyega, Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page said he sent his family several warning texts before the show aired on Netflix in December 2020 because, well, it would be a lot more blush-inducing for them than it was for us (and there was a lot of blushing going on during our first, second, and third run-through...).

"No one was sufficiently prepared," Page said regarding those scenes in the series. "I wasn't sufficiently prepared, and I was there."

Page did say, however, that he believes audiences were "grateful for the intensity" that the romance scenes in Bridgerton provided, though he's not quite sure how grateful he was to watch them, himself. "It was overwhelming," he said. "But I think people were looking to be overwhelmed."

And his family ended up being real troopers about those lusty scenes. "My family doesn't want to be overwhelmed by my backside, specifically, too often," Paige continued, "but they'll take it on this occasion because everyone seems to be terribly happy."

Becoming an overnight sex symbol thanks to his role as the Duke of Hastings in Bridgerton has taught Page that his acting work not only affects him, but it affects his entire family.

"There is a responsibility to my family," he said during the roundtable discussion. "I think I owed them that side of things because I know that, for instance, my brother finds it incredibly hard to watch Roots, he can't do it. And I need to look after my family in the more traumatizing work, as much as I look after them when they're going to have a couple of blushes."

He said that with Bridgerton, a circle of sorts was completed for both himself and his family. "The scene in particular that my brother can't watch [from Roots has me] dragged away from my family in this carriage and sold into bondage in the U.K.," he said. "I never thought that I'd do many parts in the 19th century, and then I'm back in the 19th century on Bridgerton, and there's a moment on set where I'm rolling down the street in this lord's carriage and I'm like, 'Oh shit, I own this now.' That's what I felt I owed my family at the other end of that circle."

And sadly for us, the completion of that circle means that Page is ready to move onto other projects. He won't be returning to Bridgerton in the next season (sob), but seeing him in a new role will be just as thrilling as seeing him play Simon.