Cary Grant

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There has always been something about Cary Grant that has me entranced. He's not a comedian but he has amazing comedic timing. I love watching him do slapstick. The thing about Cary Grant is he is the one actor who never changed his accent to fit a part. Every movie I've seen him in, and I've seen a lot he has the same accent except for maybe some of the earlier ones but he doesn't completely Americanize his voice to fit his American parts. He plays a Frenchman in "I Was a Male War Bride" and there's not a French accent to be found and yet I still love watching him in it. A lot of British actors eventually change their accents to Americanize them in a way but Cary never really did, maybe slightly but nothing like some other actors. Ray Milland had a very distinct sounding voice where he could fit American parts but still had some of his British accent and it made him sound unique but you could really hear his accent continue to change through his movies whereas Cary Grant pretty much had the same accent through most of his career. Cary Grant could get away with it in a way a lot of other actors couldn't. I could never pinpoint what made Cary Grant so good. He had something so uniquely him. Cary Grant was a persona and not who he really was outside of the acting world. From my understanding he was very reserved and kept to himself outside of his acting jobs. He loved his privacy and tried to keep it, which is difficult when you are a celebrity of his caliber. He had an interesting past and had a rough upbringing and reinvented himself to fit who we saw on screen. Something some people might know and some don't is Cary Grant ran away as a teenager to join a troupe of acrobats which really helped his slapstick routines. There was just something about Cary's face in comedy movies that always have me laughing. He did comedy well. He and Katherine Hepburn had this amazing chemistry on screen and their movies are some of my favorites. Cary Grant once said "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant". Cary Grant was this charismatic, charming, suave man that everyone was enamored with at one point. Cary Grant didn't want them to know who he really was. He left his home as Archibald Leach a young man who lived a rough childhood and transformed himself into Cary Grant a man who was nothing like that young boy with the difficult past. Cary Grant transformed himself into someone completely different from who he once was at least to the public. He was such a guarded man. To this day he remains one of my favorite actors. I always kind of related to his loner ways in private. I never could have been an actor though, because no matter how much he wanted privacy he had a difficult time getting it. I also hate being in front of people the way he was. I like places like this where I can speak on a platform and get my thoughts out with no one really knowing me. There's something to no one really knowing who you are and being able to talk without the pressure. Cary Grant never could have had that. I think he lived in his own head a lot. Everyone that worked with him said he was hard to get to know but that he was kind but distant. I can relate to that on some level. I don't think most of my coworkers know much about me other than the handful of details I share. Cary Grant's talent didn't lie in his secrecy, but I do think that part of his talent was because of the things he didn't talk about. All of these things he molded for himself came from somewhere and I think some of his talent had something to do with that past he kept buried. The ability to pull from your past is a talent many actors use to get the right emotions on screen. Cary had a lot to draw from. I do think there was a lot of natural talent too. I have known people who thought he was overrated but I'll always disagree. He is one of the best actors to have existed (I'm not saying he is THE best but he's definitely on that list) and that's a hill I'm willing to die on. I think it say something about his talent that you can watch a movie of a man who never changes his accent and just buy that he is whatever nationality he's pretending to play and not question it too much says a lot about his talent. He has so much charisma that you're able to overlook it. His comedic timing is some of the best I've seen in a movie. His ability to verbally spar with his costars in a movie and keep up with fast paced banter is part of his talent. If you have ever seen any of his movies with Katherine Hepburn or if you've ever seen "His Girl Friday" you'll know what I'm talking about.