'Archie': Jason Isaacs, Jeff Pope talk about Cary Grant's life ahead of biopic's release
Cary Grant wasn't easy for Jason Isaacs. The Peter Pan star had to undergo an elaborate cosmetic process to get into the skin of the character, quite literally!
To display a deep tan, Isaacs had to daily apply spray paint to look like Hollywood's greatest leading man, Archibald Alexander Leach — A.K.A.
Cary Grant, a four-part bio-drama on who's life is soon set to premiere on ITV and ITVX on November 23.
Titled 'Archie', the series aims to engage viewers by exploring the unusual aspects of Grant's life.
Talking about his transformation, Isaacs said, «They spray-paint me every single day.
At the place I’m staying, I don’t know what the laundry thinks has been going on, with these dark brown sheets every morning.”
The need for such extensive disguise is fitting for portraying Grant, whose polished Hollywood image was meticulously crafted by the man born Archibald Leach in a working-class family in Bristol.
Series creator Jeff Pope suggests that the story could resonate even for those unfamiliar with Cary Grant: a narrative that unfolds from a child being told his mother is dead to discovering, 25 years later, that she is alive in a psychiatric hospital.
“I’ve always said this could be a story about Grant Cary – that is someone we’ve never heard of – rather than Cary Grant.
The pitch would be: a child is told his mother is dead; 25 years later, when he’s the biggest movie star in the world, he learns she’s still alive in a psychiatric hospital.”
Pope, known for blending true crime and entertainment biopics in his previous works, describes Archie as a fusion of showbiz glamour and grim realities. The filming location mirrors this duality, transitioning from the squalor of Edwardian terraces to the opulence of the
