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Here's how Regé-Jean Page got the role of Simon Bassett for 'Bridgerton'

"Bridgerton," the period romance series which only launched last December, has taken Netflix by storm.

It's already considered the "biggest series ever" streaming in 80M households on its first month alone. Many have tuned in not just for its costume design or for its dramatic plot but for a certain tall, dark and handsome duke and not a few steamy sex scenes he figures in.

The Duke of Hastings, aka Simon Bassett, is played by none other than English-Zimbabwean actor Regé-Jean Page.

In an episode of Netflix's "The Part," Rege-John said he didn't purposely seek out the role.

"I was very very lucky with very good timing," Rege-John said on Monday.

"I was a bit of a company man at Shondaland already. I'd been working on a show called 'For The People' for a couple of years and they gave me a call like, 'Whoa. Whoa. Whoa! We're actually working on this other thing and we've been talking about you in the casting room and would you read it?'"

After a couple of reads and meetings, Rege-John found himself "on the plane back to London to start this thing. I just kind of went bleh in this great big blur."

"Just do the work and then you'll do more work. And you'll get better at the work and hopefully it can kind of build itself," he said of his career trajectory. 

"It's the theory that I have," continued His, ehem, Grace. "Otherwise, Maybe it's just dumb luck. I don't know," Page added.

Rege-Jean revealed the hardest thing about playing the stoic duke: It was that he couldn't smile for nearly six weeks.

"Even watching the show back, I'm just like dude just crack a smile for a second, hug someone please," the actor joked.

"Bridgerton," produced by Shondaland and Chris Van Dusen, follows Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the powerful Bridgerton family, as she enters into an uncanny deal with the rebellious Duke of Hastings to attract more suitors for herself and at the same time to warn off marriage prospects for the duke who vowed never to marry.

Netflix announced last week that it will be renewing "Bridgerton" for a second season. — Kaela Malig/LA, GMA News