Rege-Jean Page has said his family did not want to be “overwhelmed by my backside” during Bridgerton’s sex scenes but were willing to put up with them because everyone else seemed “terribly happy”.
The actor shot to fame thanks to his role as the Duke of Hastings in Netflix’s raunchy period drama, but has since announced he will not be returning for its second series.
Speaking during an actors roundtable hosted by The Hollywood Reporter, Page said he had sent several warning messages to his family’s WhatsApp group ahead of them watching his more explicit scenes.
Asked about his family’s reaction to the “racier scenes”, he said: “No-one was sufficiently prepared. I wasn’t sufficiently prepared, and I was there.
“I think people were grateful for the intensity of the romantic aspects of Bridgerton; I’m not sure how grateful I was to watch it for myself. It was overwhelming. But I think people were looking to be overwhelmed.
“My family doesn’t want to be overwhelmed by my backside, specifically, too often, but they’ll take it on this occasion because everyone seems to be terribly happy.”
He said appearing in Bridgerton completed a “personal circle” for him and his family, following his role in 2016 miniseries Roots.
Page, who has been touted as a contender for the role of James Bond, played Chicken George in the drama about a family’s experience of slavery in America across multiple generations.
He said: “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 UK.
“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.”
Page is set to star in Netflix’s big-budget spy film The Gray Man, alongside Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans.