Dyan Cannon credits a higher power for keeping her mentally agile as she inches up to 90.
“Praying, that’s what keeps me straight,” the actress, who is turning 87 next month, told Pvnew exclusively at The Paley Center for Media on Monday night.
“I’m a big God girl,” the Oscar nominee continued. “After some of the things I’ve been through, I couldn’t make sense out of the world, so I had to go to something that did make sense.
“And what I realized one day — not just believed, I can’t believe because you tell me to believe, I have to understand — and when I came to a place in my understanding is that there really is something bigger than me that protects me and guides me and nourishes me and I believe that.”
Cannon was on hand to help present The American Premiere of Britbox’s “Archie” as part of PaleyLive NY.
The mini-series is based on her first husband Cary Grant’s remarkable life. (Archie refers to Grant’s real name, Archibald Leach).
The four-part series, with Jason Isaacs playing Grant, is based in part on Cannon’s 2011 memoir, “Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant.” She serves as an executive producer along with their daughter, Jennifer Grant.
The show doesn’t shy away from showing an unflattering side to the “Charade” star, who died in 1986 at 82.
Cannon’s tempestuous marriage — which included controlling behavior and Cary forcing her to take LSD — is shown along with the deep joy the Hollywood legend derived from becoming a father later in life.
It also delves into Cary’s tragic childhood, which included not knowing that his mother had been placed in a mental asylum by his father for 30 years.
Though the “Heaven Can Wait” star is in tune with her religion, she is reluctant to call herself born-again.
“I’m living now,” she told Pvnew. “I just came to understand that there is something bigger than me that I can trust because I can’t trust a lot of what is out there because it changes its mind all the time.”
However, Cannon admitted that she doesn’t solely rely on God to keep herself physically trim.
“I’ve come to a place in my life where I can eat anything but I do work out,” she said. “I try and do something at least three or four times a week.”
