Jason Isaacs talks playing ‘desperately troubled and unhappy, haunted’ Cary Grant in ITVX biopic

Handsome, charming, with a great sense of comic timing and an instantly recognisable transatlantic accent, Grant starred in a host of films including Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, None But The Lonely Heart, and several Alfred Hitchcock pictures including Suspicion and North By Northwest.

He married five times but had only one child – his daughter Jennifer, born to his fourth wife, actress Dyan Cannon – and lived to the age of 82.

Of course, a man of such legendary status naturally contains multitudes, not just in himself, but in the world’s view of him. The complex story of Cary Grant is being explored in four-part ITVX drama Archie, with prolific actor Jason Isaacs playing Hollywood’s leading man.

So, who was Cary Grant?

“I think he was a desperately troubled and unhappy, haunted human being who had a terrible, abusive childhood,” says Isaacs, 60, of the man he portrays.

“Which was one of the things that the screen could never get across – he was hungry, starving, and he was starved of love.

“Who he was, was someone desperately in need of love, and who thought he could get it from anywhere and anyone and, hopefully, everyone, and when he did get that, and he went at it with a singularity of purpose that was mind-boggling and nuclear, he found it not only didn’t work, it did the opposite: made him feel less loved.

“The shame he carried for who he’d been, and how he’d been… drove him on this relentless hunt for getting order in his life, and finding answers in his life. And he did a lot of damage to himself and other people along the way until he found hope near the end of his life, through being a father, some peace.

“But the story is worth telling, because our baggage destroys us unless we deal with it.”

His daughter, Jennifer Grant, now 57, who served as executive producer on the series, adds: “I would start with: he was dad, and he was a magnificent father.”

“He was generous, he was funny, he was tender, and kind, and we spent a lot of time together because he retired, which was also, from my point of view, a very generous act,” she says.

“I’m sure his fans would have loved to see 20 more films. But lucky for me, he spent those years at home.”

According to Grant’s ex-wife, Cannon, now 86, “he was the figment of his imagination”.

“He was a great lover”, adds Cannon, who was also executive producer for the series, and is played by Laura Aikman on screen.

“Complicated, funny, sardonic, controlling, imaginative, kind, commanding, so many things. That’s what interested me. Great fun.”

All episodes of Archie are available to stream on ITVX.