British actor Regé-Jean Page says he mastered American accents by faking them in Ubers

"Generally I'll stay undercover and put on a New York accent or a West Coast accent," the "Bridgerton" actor said.

• While living in LA in his 20s, Regé-Jean Page set out to master different American accents.
• So, the British actor told GQ that he used to try out a new one each time he took an Uber.
• "Generally I'll stay undercover and put on a New York accent or a West Coast accent," he said.
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British actor Regé-Jean Page used to speak in different American accents each time he took Ubers in the US as a method of practicing various dialects, he told GQ on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old, who grew up in Zimbabwe before moving to London for secondary school, headed to Los Angeles in his 20s to pursue a career in acting. While there, he set out to master a wide range of accents.

So, Page used Uber rides as a way to test them out, chatting with drivers in a new one each time he ordered a car.

"Generally I'll stay undercover and put on a New York accent or a West Coast accent," he said.

Page likened the exercise to a pianist running through scales in the morning, in that it provided a real-life outlet to practice outside of read-throughs and auditions.

"In the rehearsal room, actors give each other a lot of slack. But if you're not confident ordering a coffee in that accent, in the place that accent is from, then that's not good enough to go on screen," he said.

While Page was in LA, he secured a role as Leonard Knox on the ABC series "For the People," meeting the show's producer Shonda Rhimes in the process.

It was an introduction that opened the door to his breakthrough role as Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, on "Bridgerton," an adaptation of Julia Quinn's Regency-era romance novels that Rhimes produced as part of her $100 million deal with Netflix.

Rhimes immediately envisioned Page as the sultry lead after seeing him on "For the People." He agreed to sign a one-year contract.

"It felt like a limited series. I get to come in, I get to contribute my bit and then the Bridgerton family rolls on," Page told Variety in April after sharing the news that he will not return for season two.

Though the actor's days as the duke may be behind him, he's already slated to appear in a number of Hollywood projects, including Paramount's "Dungeons and Dragons" and Netflix's "The Gray Man."