Lee Pace has revealed his lead role in Halt And Catch Fire had helped him to understand his father.

The show is set in Texas in 1983, where Lee’s family also lived in the late 80s – and his character, Joe Macmillan, is the same age as Lee’s father was at the time.

Lee, who is 36, explained that this has helped him to appreciate his own father’s life: “I’m basically playing my dad when he was my age now. This was one generation before me.

“Personally it helps me in this other part of my life, just seeing my parents as three-dimensional people.”

Lee Pace as Joe Macmillan in Halt and Catch Fire
Lee Pace as Joe Macmillan (right) (Amazon Instant Video)

The series, now in its second season, dramatises the boom in personal computing in early 80s America.

Lee said: “It is right before this revolutionary cultural event, when technology became such a present part of our lifestyles.”

And it is this huge shift which Lee has come to consider as he plays charismatic, scheming Joe: “I think about my father and how different his life was to his father’s, and how different my life is.”

He added: “Me and my dad just went to China and we talked about that. We talked about a lot of things.”

Lee also revealed he initially struggled to connect with Joe: “I guess at first when I was first playing Joe I had a hard time identifying with the things that he did.”

In the first season, Joe was shown bullying and manipulating to get what he wanted, but Lee said that his character was gaining more “self-respect” in the second season and wanted to approach things in a different way.

He added: “I do relate to that moment in your life, your mid-30s, when you say, ‘I need to really make a decision of what kind of man I am’.”

Halt And Catch Fire is available on Amazon Prime Instant Video, with new episodes every Tuesday.