‘Bridgerton’ Sensation Regé-Jean Page Would Like To Remind Everyone That The Duke Was Actually ‘Horrific’ And A ‘Regency F*ckboy’

Bridgerton‘s second round didn’t show off quite as much sex appeal as the season revolving around Daphne and Duke Simon. And that’s for the better, honestly, since it’d be rather difficult to do that again without, well, The Duke. The sophomore season still pulled off a viewing record for Netflix, and everything’s still going full steam ahead for more Bridgerton and a Queen Charlotte spinoff, but of course, people miss The Duke.

Regé-Jean Page, who crushed ovaries on SNL to poke fun at The Duke phenomenon, will probably always carry that character with him. He’s onto starring roles in franchises like Dungeons & Dragons, and he plays a villain in The Gray Man (Netflix’s movie starring Chris Evans’ stache, Ryan Gosling, and Ana de Armas). Naturally (and as he revealed), journalists keep asking him about The Duke, and that included Variety‘s Marc Malkin, to whom Page observed that Simon really wasn’t a good guy before all of that “redemption.”

Remember, Simon was a “rake” who (as Daphne put it) was “raking across the continent”? And here’s a clip of Page telling Malkin that Simon was “kind-of this horrific…” and “a Regency f*ckboy” (with his quote below):

“Shonda and I had a wonderful conversation at the end of the Season 1. We were quite happy about how we stuck the landing on that one. I’m still proud of how we stuck the landing on that one. I’ve had a lot of conversations on this junket of folks saying, ‘You know, Simon was such a lovely gentleman, and now, you’re playing this super bad character…’ I think we did so well on that redemptive arc, people forgot that Simon was kind-of this horrific… he was the best example of a ‘Regency f*ckboy’ that any of us have come across.”

Further, Page revealed that he hasn’t caught Season 2 yet, and while he has always seemed grateful for the opportunity to play Simon in the first place, everyone should feel “free” to recast The Duke if they really want him in the show. Page previously turned down a guest spot for Simon in this second season, and now we know more about why he’s moving onto other places.

Still, Page would like to stress how he feels like “you really have to be brave about ending stories like that.” That’d refer to Simon’s transformation for love, “And because we brought that round full circle so well, because we stuck that landing, you’re left with this great feeling.” And that means (credit to John Oliver) less “jizzing in blankets.”

Bridgerton‘s first two seasons are currently streaming, and Netflix’s The Gray Man streams on July 22.