Available since December 25, the Bridgertons Chronicle series is a phenomenon on Netflix where it has become the most viewed series in the history of the platform with 82 million views in one month. A crazy success that was a little unexpected for some actors and which propelled Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page into full light. But the performers of Daphné and Simon are not the only ones to have found fame thanks to the series: Jonathan Bailey who plays Anthony Bridgerton has also made a lot of talk on the networks. The actor is about to shoot season 2 in which his character will be at the center of the action. And to think that he had in fact not really planned to play Anthony!
Jonathan Bailey almost played Simon
If Phoebe Dynevor lied during her audition for The Chronicle of the Bridgertons because she absolutely wanted the role of Daphne, Jonathan Bailey, he recently confided to have auditioned to play … Simon! Yep, the 32-year-old actor told Vogue UK that the show’s crew contacted him to read the script and asked him which character he wanted to play. “For several reasons, I ended up auditioning for the role of Simon and it got to the point that I went to the United States. (he was at the time in the casting of the musical Company in London, editor’s note) to drink tea and meet the showrunners and producers of Shondaland. “said the actor.
However, he admits that he immediately felt that it was not necessarily going. “I spoke with them and auditioned for the Duke of Hastings but there was a kind of awkwardness in the room. And then someone said to me: ‘And why not Anthony?’. And then of course, I got involved in this character“adds Jonathan Bailey. It was at the airport, just before returning to England, that he learned that he had landed the role and he confides that he immediately threw himself on Anthony (The Viscount Who Loved Me in the original version), the second novel in Julia Quinn’s saga (available from I Read Editions). Jonathan Bailey then devoured the 350 pages during the flight.
Jonathan Bailey is not the only one to have auditioned to play Simon Basset in The Bridgertons Chronicle before Regé-Jean Page landed the role: Tom Payne, the star of Prodigal Son, also confided to having tried his luck to play the Duke.
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