The life of one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars is a story that goes beyond imagination. THE Cary Grant, was born Archibald (Archie) Leach in 1904 to an abusive father. While he was a child, Grant’s mother was secretly committed to a mental hospital, and was pronounced dead. The actor found out she was still alive when she was 31 years old.

The life of Cary Grant is the subject of the miniseries titled “Archie”, a four-part biopic from screenwriter Jeff Pope, co-produced by Grant’s ex-wife Diane Cannon and his daughter Jennifer Grant. The series chronicles the actor’s rise, his struggle with his demons and his relationships with the most important women in his life.

“It was Diane who told me far more detail than you can find anywhere about the whole thing with his motherPope said. “And I couldn’t get it out of my head. I thought what an incredible story this is and it needs to be told. Made me think of Dickens and “Great Expectations”».

The result is a tale of two periods and two protagonists: young actor Archie Leach, played by Callum Lynch, and middle-aged superstar Cary Grant, played by Jason Isaacs.

“Cary Grant didn’t exist,” Isaacs said. “Cary Grant was someone who was invented by a man because he was tortured so much. And I thought, “I get to play a really messed-up person who can falsify a lot of things in a lot of situations, to a lot of people.” I can’t play Cary Crund, but I can play Archie Leach».

The project was originally envisioned as a feature film, but Pope quickly realized that he could not properly capture Grant’s “essence” in 90 minutes. “He was a desperately unhappy, haunted man who had a terrible, abused childhood,” Isaacs said of his character. “Which was one of the things the screen could never pick up: He was hungry, he was hungry. And he was hungry for lovehe added.