Surprising Facts About British-Zimbabwean Actor Regererai-Page, Also Most Handsome Man According To Science
Regé-Jean Page has starred in the hit series “Bridgerton” and fantasy movie “Dungeons & Dragons.”
The British-Zimbabwean actor graduated from the same acting school as Colin Firth and Emilia Clarke.
Here are some facts about Page that you may not know.
Regé-Jean Page had a small role in “Harry Potter Deathly Hallows: Part 1.”
Regé-Jean Page, Emma Watson and Dame Julie Walters in “Deathly Hallows Part 1.” Warner Bros
After his starring role in “Bridgerton” season one, many fans were quick to point out that Regé-Jean Page had actually appeared in the “Harry Potter” film series.
Page made a short cameo as an uncredited extra during the early wedding scene in “Deathly Hallows Part 1,” standing right next to Emma Watson’s Hermione Granger and Dame Julie Walters’ Molly Weasley.
Page also had several other big roles before “Bridgerton” made him a star.
He starred in Shondaland’s “For The People” in the late 2010s, played Chicken George in the Emmy-nominated reboot of “Roots,” and also appeared in the “Mortal Engines” movie.
Page was born in London but spent his first years in Zimbabwe.
Regé-Jean Page in 2016 at the “Roots” premiere.
In interviews, Page has said he was born in London but he grew up in Zimbabwe in the early years of his life with his father, who was a preacher, and his mother, who was a nurse. He told GQ that he returned to London to attend high school in his teen years.
In his 20s, Page moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career.
When asked about home, Page told Interview Magazine: “We were in Zimbabwe [until I was 14]. But throughout that period my family was rather spread out — I have family in South Africa, Australia, Sweden, Grenada, Florida — so you make pit stops and you grow your perspective. Home is a relative concept. Home is very much wherever it is that your people are and where you fit in.”
He continued: “I spent my whole life figuring out how to be different people. Zimbabwe’s one of the youngest countries in the world, it became independent from British colonialism in the 1980s. In America, you can still feel the echoes of slavery, and Zimbabwe is very much feeling the echoes of British colonial rule. It’s very hard to craft an identity in that environment as a young, mixed raced man. I learned from the age of three that I was a walking political statement.”
When Page returned to London, he created a punk band with his brother.
After Page returned to London, the “For the People” actor became interested in punk music.
He told Square Mile in 2020: “What else are you going to do as a teenager? You’re going to scream at people one way or another. You might as well do it in a productive way. Was my logic.”
Page also said that he formed a band with his brother and dyed his hair purple.
“It was good fun. It was a healthy place to have opinions, and have them very, very loudly,” the “Waterloo Road” actor said, but refused to reveal the name of the band.
In 2017, Page also told The Fall magazine that he was drawn to the idea that labels didn’t matter.
“When I got involved in the punk scene, my notion of what a career was changed. I realized that a career in the arts was actually about having the people and community to support you making your art,” he said. “I want to break down the boundaries of what is considered normal and do away with labels – gay, straight, brown, white… ”
Tabloids were able to find pictures of punk rocker Page after his big break in “Bridgerton.”
Page graduated from the same drama school as Pierce Brosnan, Paul Bettany, and Colin Firth.
Page told Flaunt magazine that he first began acting at the age of 10. While he was a teen, Page went on to make small appearances in British series like “Casualty” and “Gimme 6.”
After university, Page said he went on to go to drama school at the Drama Centre London. This school has a number of famous alumni: Marvel stars Paul Bettany and Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and “Game of Thrones” stars Emilia Clarke and Gwendoline Christie.
After graduating, Page pursued acting as his full-time career.
“Fresh Meat” star Zawe Ashton said she helped Page get a US visa.
In 2013, Page appeared in two episodes of the British comedy series “Fresh Meat.”
Last year, Zawe Ashton, who starred in the series alongside Page, told Insider that she kept in touch with the “Bridgerton” actor after his time finished on the show and even helped Page get to LA when he moved for his career.
“We just started talking and he was clearly extremely hard-working and really inspiring,” Ashton said. “We swapped contacts and I said, ‘Look, if you want a soundboard for the journey that you are on right now, it’s hard out there especially for actors of color, so you just gimme a text.'”
Ashton continued: “And I actually had helped him write this series of letters for when you’re applying for a US visa. Didn’t think any more about it. I just thought, ‘I hope that guy does what he wants to do.’ And then I turn on ‘Bridgerton’ and I’m like, ‘This is so phenomenal.’ Full-circle moment.”
Ashton later said she was inspired by “Bridgerton” to appear in a period drama, which she did with the 2022 movie “Mr. Malcolm’s List.”
Starring in Roots led to Page being cast as the Duke of Hastings in “Bridgerton.”
Starring in the critically successful History Channel reboot of “Roots” in 2016 was Page’s first big break.
According to Shondaland executive Betsy Beers, the role was crucial in leading to his casting as the Duke of Hastings in “Bridgerton.”
She told Esquire that the “Roots” series brought Page to her attention and he was discussed when they were looking for their “Bridgerton” lead.
“It would be so great to get somebody like Regé. I wish there was somebody like Regé,” Beers said the atmosphere was like in the casting room.
She added: “Every time I came back to the ‘Bridgerton’ set, I looked at Regé’s face, and I felt like I was coming home,” Beers said. “When he speaks to you, he makes you feel like the only person in the world. Even on our busiest days, he always found moments to be unerringly delightful and solicitous and kind.”
“Bridgerton” was crucial to his casting in “The Gray Man” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.”
Rege-Jean Page as Chicken George in the “Roots” remake.
“Bridgerton” also landed Page his next two gigs.
In 2022, he played a villain in the 2022 spy movie “The Gray Man.” And this year, Page stars as a heroic paladin in “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.”
Page told GQ in 2021 that both meetings went the same way.
“The conversation was, ‘So my wife saw this [‘Bridgerton’] and told me that I need to see it,'” the 34-year-old actor said.
He added that there is “something super interesting that powerful men had me recommended by the women in their lives, which I think says something about where the power actually lies.”
Last year, “The Gray Man” directors Joe and Anthony Russo told Insider the same thing.
“My wife is a huge ‘Bridgerton’ fan. That’s how we discovered him,” Joe said. “We did not pull him away from ‘Bridgerton.’ I don’t want anyone coming after us.”
Joe added that Page’s “Saturday Night Live” appearance also inspired the directing duo to cast him as the movie’s villain, Denny Carmichael.
“I saw him on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and I thought he was charismatic and really, really compelling and fun to watch and so we thought he’d be perfect as a villain,” Joe said.
The first album Page owned was by Tracy Chapman.
In 2020, Page told InStyle that Tracy Chapman’s 1988 self-titled album has become his “Bible” after it was passed down by his parents.
When asked about the first album he owned, he said: “I was lucky enough to have parents with good taste, who passed that down to me. It’s still basically my Bible. I think there’s this incredible clarity and honesty that Tracy has in the album.”
He continued: “People overuse the phrase timeless but it’s completely timeless. There’s a pure, unfiltered humanity, and it’s the most moving thing I own still.”
Chapman is an American songwriter best known for her hit singles “Fast Car,” which was covered by Jonas Blue in 2015, and “Give Me One Reason,” which has been covered by Kelly Clarkson twice.
Page and his “Bridgerton” costar Phoebe Dynevor had “horrendous coffee breath” while filming intimate scenes.
During an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote “Dungeons & Dragons” in February, Page shared a humorous tidbit about filming “Bridgerton.”
After discussing what “D&D” star Chris Pine smells like, Page added: “That’s what no one knows about ‘Bridgerton.’ Phoebe and I had horrendous coffee breath the whole way through. We made a pact early on.”
He continued: “It’s one of the things you do, you approach the other actor and you go, ‘Hey, so the scene is after lunch. What are our rules? Are we no onions? Are we no garlic? Do I have to get the coffee in early?’
“And we both were like, ‘Actually, I really like coffee so I don’t mind.’ Thank god. So we had a coffee safe space the whole way through that show.”
Page once had to hide in his hotel in Belfast after a radio show started a competition encouraging fans to find him.
Page also discussed how he handled becoming famous overnight while on “The Late Show.”
“Bridgerton” was an instant success and within a month of its release, it became the most-watched Netflix original series ever on the platform.
In fact, Page said that when he went to shoot “Dungeons & Dragons” three months after “Bridgerton” was released, a radio show announced a competition to find him.
“When we were shooting ‘Dungeons & Dragons,’ we were in Belfast,” the “Bridgerton” star said. “I remember landing in Northern Ireland and I got in the car. On the ride from the airport, the driver turned on the radio and they were running a competition to find me. They were like, ‘Regé-Jean Page is in town. Call us if you know where he is.’ So, I kind of holed up in the hotel.”
Page continued: “A couple of people did [find me]. Folks are very, very friendly in Belfast, and very forthcoming. So it’s not like anyone sneaked pictures. They just kind of ran up to me and grabbed me and was like, ‘Welcome to Belfast!’ ‘Ahh! Thank you so much.'”
Page has been described as the most handsome man in the world by a plastic surgeon.
In January, a UK-based plastic surgeon named Page the most handsome man in the world because his face is said to be in near-perfect alignment with the Greek “golden ratio.”
Dr. Julian De Silva, whose website describes him as a facial cosmetic surgeon, commented on several celebrity faces in a post on Instagram as he measured them against the mathematical ratio.
De Silva wrote that Chris Hemsworth had a 93.53% accuracy to the ratio, while Michael B. Jordan was in third with 93.46% accuracy.
However, he said: “The 34-year-old British actor – Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings in the hit Netflix series – was found to be 93.65% accurate to the Greek Golden Ratio of Beauty Phi – which measures physical perfection.”
In the past, De Silva has claimed that Amber Heard had the “most beautiful face in the world” in 2016 and gave George Clooney the same title in 2017.
Reacting to the news on “The Late Show,” Page said the title felt like an “ambush.”
“That was news to me. That’s not the conversation I had with myself in the mirror every morning,” Page said. “It was a bit of an ambush headline. It’s that thing where you do a show and you know you got to ride the press cycle. People are going to be looking out for you more while you’re on the ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ press tour where you’re talking about the movie or when ‘Bridgerton’ has just come out.”
He continued: “But at this point, I just kind of finally ridden this thing and I was sitting at home feeling a little bit relaxed. We’re in the lull before I do this and then there’s just this ambush headline. Like bam! Everyone’s looking at you again. I didn’t even ask for this. I had no idea that I was apparently scientifically…”
Source -Insider-
