Outside of reading the book, what kind of research or prep did you do for the role of Simon?
I’ve always loathed to let people behind the curtain. The whole magic of this industry is that you get to see the trick but you don’t want to know how the magician does it. Obviously, I started with the book. The source material is always a very beautiful resource, but I tried to get that out of the way as early as possible. As soon as I knew I got the job, I read the book so that I could very quickly forget the book. And then I had loads and loads of conversations with the wardrobe department, which was really cool and in-depth about what the clothes say about the people and why they are wearing them. We talked a lot about Simon being in Byron-ic collars because he is this Byron-ic type of hero. I always look at what kind of literature was coming out in the time period that you are setting a drama, and you have these new prominent female writers—Mary Shelly and Jane Austen—but they are hanging out with the modern romantic writers like Byron. They are bringing in these foreign influences from their travels around Europe, and so we talked about that with the clothes and how the necklines would be different and how Byron had this jewel he wore with like a token from maybe a lover or a loved one, or maybe he is was just being a bit prince-like and mysterious. Who knows? But we talked about all of these things, what the patterns on the costumes would be, and what we could bring in to get this sense of travel and outsiderness. That translates in the clothes and from the clothes then comes back to developing the character. It’s a bit of a cliché, but it starts with the shoes. You walk out in someone else’s shoes, and I like to do that quite literally. The first thing I do on a job is ask for the shoes or the boots so I can walk around them at home while I’m working and build from the ground up.
I love that! I’ve never heard that approach before. Speaking of the costumes, do you have a favorite Simon look?
There is a particular robe that he likes to kind of lounge in around the castle that I wish I could bring into my daily life. I think that may be my new life goal. It’s this kind of red patent robe, but again, it was something we talked about him bringing back from Mesopotamia on his travels. I adored that. That’s probably my favorite casual Simon look.
Simon is a very stubborn character and I would often find myself yelling at the screen with some of his actions.
That’s an understatement. I was yelling at the screen exactly the same as I was watching it. And half the filming period yelling internally at Simon like, “Come on, mate. Crack a smile.”
You and Phoebe Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton, are so good together. Do you remember the audition process?
Well, as far as the audition process goes, we had a chemistry read in November before we started filming where Shonda was present. And that obviously went well. And from there—I’m a bit of a purist on this—I think it’s less about building chemistry as much as getting out of its way. It’s already there on the page. It’s already there in the books. That’s why they are so popular. Our job is just to channel that and get out of its way. Dance rehearsals were huge for that because dance is such a huge way that people express themselves, particularly in this period when everything is so repressed. The only place that you get to directly interact with people are sanctioned, and the only place you get this sanctioned time to flirt and say all the things that you can’t say out loud is in the dances. So we spent a lot of time going around to each other’s places and messing with dance stuff because that I think is the most intimate part. Even though it’s a very sexy show, the most intimate scenes, I think, are very much when they are dancing together. So we spent a lot of time with that and that naturally brought us a little closer.
