Jonathan Bailey Learned ‘Bad’ Choreography in His ‘Bridgerton’ Dressing Room (Exclusive)

Between filming ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Fellow Travellers’ and the dance-heavy ‘Wicked’, Jonathan Bailey is a busy actor

Jonathan Bailey dances through life – and a lot of different Hollywood projects.

“He was literally shooting Bridgerton and learning the choreography on his days off,” recalls Ariana Grandehis costar in movie musical Bad. “He flew in, had a dance rehearsal and then flew back.”

Corrects Bailey, 36: “Waddle back.”

Edited by director Jon M Chu from the hit Broadway musical, Bad: Part One (in cinemas from November 22 with Part two expected in 2025) stars Grande, 31, as Glinda the Good Witch Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and Bailey as Winkie Prince Fiyero Tigelaar. The British actor’s big musical number, “Dancing Through Life,” provides one of the film’s danceiest sequences.

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Like PEOPLE special edition about all things Bad explains, Bailey rehearsed Fiyero’s dances in between filming both Bridgerton in London and historical romanceFellow travelers in Canada. “I have videos on my phone of me practicing on long-haul flights” between continents, he says.

“Our fellow choreographers came to visit him,” Grande tells PEOPLE, marveling at everything Bailey has packed into his schedule. Choreographer Christopher Scott and the fellow choreographers “taught him in his dressing room and so on,” she recalls.

Pointing to her friend and co-star, she says, “I feel so grateful to be present and in my body during all this special work and to be able to celebrate with the most brilliant, incredible artists around me.”

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Bailey agrees. “What I’m amazed by is seeing the final film,” he says. “(There’s) so much I hadn’t seen because I wasn’t there on set. And to see it so effortlessly – these performances are jaw-dropping, obviously Ari and Cynthia – the work that went into it is unprecedented.”

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Netflix’s Chris Van Dusen created, Shonda Rhimes-produced Bridgertonwhich stars Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton, will release its fourth season in 2026. Showtime’s Ron Nyswaner-created miniseries Fellow travelerswhich starred Emmy Award nominee Bailey Matt Bomerwas released in October 2023.

Bad: Part One is in cinemas from November 22 with Part two scheduled for November 26, 2025. The films play a leading role Jeff Goldblum as the magician, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Bowen Yang as Pfannee, Keala Settlement as Mrs Coddle, Ethan Slater as Boq, Peter Dinklage as the voice of Dr. Dillamond and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.

Go behind the scenes of Bad with the new special issue of PEOPLE, available here.