“As Black people, we’re very used to empathizing with the world through white people’s eyes, because they’re the protagonists,” Page says. “What’s revolutionary, in its own way, is getting folks to see the world through my eyes.”
” adaptation, Page is open to joining another series. The actor isn’t really ruling anything out, except for being pigeonholed into any one type of character.
When the Shondaland team had difficulty finding its Duke, it turned to Page, who was wrapping up work as attorney Leonard Knox on “For the People,” and pitched him a one-season arc. It had been clear from his audition for Knox that Page had something special, “Bridgerton” exec producer Betsy Beers recalls. “I remember thinking what a uniquely talented and versatile actor he was,” she says, which made him perfect for Simon, too.
The Netflix series was never just a job; Page saw it as an opportunity to represent a new type of leading man to a global audience. While Simon fits into the brooding and broken archetype of Mr. Darcy and Heathcliff, the romance genre takes a big step into the 21st century both by exploring the underlying toxicity of those personality traits and by putting a Black man at the center of the narrative.
“As Black people, we’re very used to empathizing with the world through white people’s eyes, because they’re the protagonists. I know what it’s like to look at the world and empathize with Superman because I spent my whole life doing that,” he explains. “What’s revolutionary, in its own way, is getting folks to see the world through my eyes, because then they are in my skin and looking at the world through me.
More recently, drama encircled the actor when a story appearing in The Hollywood Reporter alleged that Page had been passed over for the role of Superman’s grandfather Seg-El on Syfy’s DC superhero series “Krypton” because he is Black. The story claimed that then-DC Entertainment chief creative officer Geoff Johns passed on the actor for the lead role over concerns that fans would expect the character to look more like Henry Cavill .
As Page looks back on his most successful roles — namely Simon and “Roots’” Chicken George, the latter the charismatic son of a slave mother and their master — he notes that they bridge an important gap in the stories Hollywood tells about Black people, which are most often framed through the lens of oppression. Because these two 19th-century characters exist in the same era, albeit in different geographic locales, they are emblematic of the true scope of the Black experience.
Helping Page navigate it all is Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown. They met during the 2016 Emmy season, when Page attended one of his first big Hollywood parties with close friend and “Roots” co-star Malachi Kirby. From across the room, Page spotted Brown, who was on the circuit for “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” and when they started talking, Page says, “My brain just turned off.
From Brown’s perspective, Page’s grounded nature makes him very easy to root for. “He wasn’t somebody who’s like, ‘Give me a couple of years and I’ll be making $10 million a flick.’ He really loves the art of illuminating the human condition,” Brown explains. “If stardom comes — and stardom is clearly approaching — I don’t think he was ever actively seeking it; it just kind of happened.”
For example, the actor says the filmmakers rewrote each of his scenes the night before shooting them. “They were like, ‘You’re from the theater, right? You can handle it,’” Page recalls with a laugh. Of course, fans immediately noted that Page raised the heartthrob-quotient of the cast, with Hollywood’s newest hunk acting opposite two of the internet’s favorite boyfriends in Gosling and Evans. “They are extremely attractive people,” Russo concedes. “In this film, they’re playing characters that have a depth and complexity that goes beyond what their looks might say about them.”