Why Cary Grant ditched his West Country accent for his mid-Atlantic accent: Bristol-born Hollywood legend’s real voice will be reprized in new ITV drama after secret tape recordings were unearthed

By James On Nov 7, 2023

Cary Grant’s mid-Atlantic accent was one of the defining characteristics of the Hollywood legend.

But it has now emerged that the Bristol-born actor has ‘faked’ being an American throughout his career on screen.

Grant’s real West Country will be seen for the first time in an ITV drama starring Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs after a tape of a secretly recorded interview from 1986 was traced.

Born in 1904 into a working-class Bristolian family, Archie Leach reinvented himself as an American to hide a tortured past and was known as a very private man who rarely gave interviews.

However, Grant remarkably agreed to do an interview in the 1980s with then-film student Kent Schuelke, who was making a film about the Hollywood icon – but only if his voice was not recorded.

It turns out that the interview was actually recorded after Mr. Schuelke’s friend recorded the footage without permission.

Isaacs said he approached Mr. Schuelke to check whether the interview had been recorded, saying, “He had not played it for anyone for almost forty years out of respect and a sense of responsibility, and after much pleading he played it for me and I got the man heard.’

He added: “The first thing I did was look for interviews, and good luck finding an interview with him anywhere. He didn’t want to be seen, he didn’t want to be known. There was nothing there, just the movies, and he didn’t talk like that. After breaking it down with a dialect coach, his accent changed a lot in the movies.

The real voice of Cary Grant will be featured in a new ITV drama – after a secret tape recording of the star was unearthed after almost 40 years

The biopic, based on Grant’s life, stars English actor Jason Isaacs, 60. Pictured: Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant

Other Brits pretending to sound American

Idras Elba

The English actor and singer auditioned for The Wire with an American accent, until a producer asked about his childhood and the truth came to light.

Millie Bobby Brown

The British star of Stranger Things spoke and dressed like an American as a teenager on the audition circuit.

Robert Pattinson

The British Twilight star was told by casting directors that his British accent was a problem, so he changed it and would “always come in as a different person.”

‘Then, through a lot of research, I found someone who recorded an interview with him the year he died. It was a young kid, a student, who had recorded it, and the first thing Cary said when he walked in was, “You’re not recording this, are you? Do not. I don’t want you to do that. ”’

Isaacs added, “I’ve heard a lot of his insecurities. I felt like I finally made a real connection with him, and that’s the voice you hear on screen (in Archie). It’s more English than he is in the movies.’

The biopic centers on Grant’s discovery that the mother he thought was dead for twenty years was actually alive and had been placed in a mental institution.

Grant, who died of a stroke in 1986, was 31 when his father told him his mother Elise was still alive.

Screenwriter Mr. Schuelke told it The Telegraph: ‘I sold the interview to Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, where it appeared in the January 1987 issue. A recording of Cary Grant talking about his life and career is a rarity.’

Grant moved to the US where he established his acting career, where he would become known for his famous Mid-Atlantic accent.

Isaacs said, “Cary Grant didn’t exist. Cary Grant was someone who was invented by a man because he was so tortured and he needed the love of as many people as possible, possibly the whole world, to fill a hole inside him.”

Grant was supported by his fourth wife Dyan Cannon, 57, and their daughter Jennifer Grant, who said: ‘Dad talked so little about his life, about his childhood. Unfortunately, I think there was so much shame in it.”

Cary Grant’s Mid-Atlantic accent was always one of his defining characteristics

The biopic centers on Grant’s discovery that the mother he thought was dead for twenty years was actually alive and had been placed in a mental institution.

Jason Isaacs has sported a new look as he transformed Hollywood icon Cary Grant in a first look on new ITVX drama Archie.

The Lucius Malfoy actor, 60, will star in the four-part series launching on the streaming platform in November.

The series is directed by BAFTA winner Paul Andrew Williams, who also serves as executive producer, and produced by BAFTA winner Rebecca Hodgson.

Jeff Pope’s scripts show how deceit, cruelty and one, overwhelming lie shaped Archie’s life.

After staying in the US to make his way in show business, a chance meeting with comedian George Burns helped him find his first foot on the acting ladder, and Cary Grant was born.

But despite breaking all the box office records, Grant was desperately unhappy in his private life.