A lot of us had a productive lockdown, but no one on earth had a better 2020 than Regé-Jean Page.
After his already-iconic performance as Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings in season one of Netflix’s Bridgerton dropped on the platform in December of that year, Page turned instantly into a household name. By 2021, the fashion and luxury world had fully scooped him up, becoming an ambassador for Audi and the Armani Code fragrance, not to mention Longines.
Now in 2022, Page has his biggest film role yet, starring in the gigantic, $200 million blockbuster action film ‘The Gray Man’, premiering on Netflix on July 22. It’s the latest from the Russo brothers Anthony and Joe, the team behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, not to mention the once-and-future biggest movie ever made, Avengers: Endgame.
The Gray Man is a spectacle like nothing we’ve seen before, featuring an astounding 9 (!) action set pieces, setting the bar extremely high for future sequels, that could likely feature Page returning along with stars Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas.
As the film rocks through Middle East cinemas and before the film heads to the global streaming platform, we caught up with the Duke Regé-Jean himself for a deeper dive into why this film was so special for him.
Read our full conversation below:
Esquire Middle East speaks with Regé-Jean Page
What did you find in this character that you hadn’t in any other?
Honestly, I enjoyed the escape from myself. I would very much like to think that there’s very little of me in Danny Carmichael, I think Carmichael a deliciously devious holiday from everything I like about myself.
Danny is like a little Pandora’s box of all the things I don’t like or I’m afraid of ever being–all of the darkness and deviousness and morally ambiguous black-voidness went into Danny, so that I don’t ever have to deal with it. Which is great fun, because it’s great fun to just release yourself into exploring that and then going home and never ever touching it again.
They’re also in much more extreme circumstances than I’m sure you’d ever find yourself, God willing.
Yeah, exactly like these guys never get to rest. They were under such an incredible amount of pressure at every single moment of this movie, which is what drives the action forward at all times.
Do you think that’s what makes them who they are?
I think the reason they take such morally difficult decisions and take such extreme decisions is because the stakes they’re playing for are so insanely high, they’re hopefully stakes that I will never encounter in my real life. Which is why it’s so much fun to play with them in this huge sandbox that the roof as a creator, you know? Oh, absolutely.
What do you enjoy mot about working with Anthony and Joe Russo?
When you’re surrounded by people like Joe and Anthony, not to mention Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Billy Bob Thorton, Ana de Armas and more, is pick all the best bits, because it’s remarkably intelligent as well as talented cast I think because the Russos are so collaborative, they’re probably drawn to people that can really contribute to those conversations. They like a bit of back and forth. They’re like kind of letting take drawing everyone’s creativity out amazing, something new and unexpected. And I think that that’s a real a real plus is kind of project.
Stream The Gray Man here starting July 22.