‘Bridgerton’: Regé-Jean Page Never Said the Famous ‘I Burn for You’ Line
Bridgerton struck a chord with fans around the world and had them swooning for Regé-Jean Page. Viewers loved Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings from the moment he stepped on the scene. One hot and steamy line that is often associated with his character is the iconic “I burn for you” moment. Though most people picture Page when they think of the line, he wasn’t actually the one to say it.
Which member of the ‘Bridgerton’ cast said ‘I burn for you’?
Page has had enough of fans attributing that line to him. He recently set the record straight on Variety’s Making a Scene.
“I do not say, ‘I burn for you.’ It’s not my line!” he said. Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor, actually said the line in the fifth episode of the season.
“Everyone clearly was feeling very burned for, which I’ll take as a compliment,” he continued.
No one expected the line to stick
A line like “I burn for you” could easily come off as cheesy, so Dynevor had to work to connect with the words.
“The key to dialogue like that is just to make it as organic and as real as possible,” Dynevor told Variety. “There’s no other way to play saying a line like that than to make it an inward feeling.”
“You have no idea what lines people are going to care about,” she continued. “That was surprising to me. It wasn’t like I saw ‘I burn for you’ in the script and was like, ‘This is what people are going to talk about.'”
Regé-Jean Page is not returning to ‘Bridgerton’ Season 2
Though the Duke of Hastings was one of the central characters in Bridgerton Season 1, he won’t be returning for Bridgerton Season 2.
“Dearest Readers, while all eyes turn to Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s quest to find a Viscountess, we bid adieu to Regé-Jean Page, who so triumphantly played the Duke of Hastings,” the show announced via the Bridgerton Twitter account. “We’ll miss Simon’s presence onscreen, but he will always be a part of the Bridgerton family.”
Fans were shocked as Simon seemed so integral to the show. But in an interview with Variety, Page revealed he always knew his role would be short.
“It’s a one-season arc. It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end — give us a year,” he told the outlet. “[I thought] ‘That’s interesting,’ because then it felt like a limited series. I get to come in, I get to contribute my bit and then the Bridgerton family rolls on.”
He continued: “One of the things that is different about this [romance] genre is that the audience knows the arc completes. They come in knowing that, so you can tie people in emotional knots because they have that reassurance that we’re going to come out and we’re going to have the marriage and the baby.”
Page doesn’t seem to have any hard feelings, though, and wishes the show the best.
“I have nothing but excitement for Bridgerton continuing to steam train off and conquer the globe,” he said. “But there is also value in completing these arcs and sticking the landing.”
