Topher Grace hints ‘Spider-Man’ easter egg in ‘Home Economics’; opens up on possible return as Venom in Marvel’s Multiverse saga – Times of India
In a candid chat with ETimes, Topher spilled the beans on the real reason behind his return to comedy, the importance of shows on adult siblings, gushing about his co-stars and more.
While we were talking about revising roles and franchises like the upcoming ‘That ’90s Show’, we also put Grace on the hot seat and quizzed him about a possible return to his anti-hero roots as Venom in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga.
Read on to know all that he had to say…
Topher, ‘Home Economics’ is now on season 3, how does that feel?
The comeback for season three is the best. Our premiere takes place in Disney Land. It is fun to go there not getting paid, but to get paid to go there (is amazing).
The Hayworth family adventures lead you all to Disney Land, what was it like shooting there?
In the cast, we’re all great friends, so it is good to work together when times are hard, but when in Disney Land, we got to do a ride to film our scene and then went and did another ride.
Also, the more you work with a cast, the better the chemistry gets. To have done these many episodes now and know each other, it just gets better and better.
What drew you to Home Economics when you read the script?
Why did I start doing this show? Well, I starred in the film ‘BlacKkKlansman’ where I play a really evil guy. Then I had done ‘Black Mirror’, where I also played another evil guy and I was starting to get offered only white supremacist and Neo-Nazi roles. I had started playing characters like these (comedy) on ‘That ’70s Show’ and wanted to try different things, but I think I went a little too far (with negative roles). So I am happy to be back to doing the things that I also love – light comedy.
What do you think makes Home Economics the perfect family comedy?
I can’t believe that there aren’t more shows about adult siblings. It’s a huge relationship. It is in many people’s lives and it goes back to who you were when you were kids – your first ideas of the world, what’s fair and right. When you take that concept and put it in a group of people who love each other and are always challenged by that, it seemed like the perfect way into a group of people.
You’ve been a part of some long-running shows, how long is too long for you?
When I did ‘That ’70s Show’, I thought one day, ‘I’d like to do something new’. There is a point when you have done the same thing for so long, to me, what it’s always about, is that I have to keep myself in love with acting besides making sure everybody else likes you doing it. You have to make sure you love doing it every day and the way forward for me was to do something different from the last thing.
I am 20-25 years into acting and the way that it gets exciting for me is that I am constantly trying something new. Doing this was something different from what I have been doing over the last 10 years and what I do next will be different from this.
When you work on long series like these, you tend to form close bonds with your cast, who is like a real sibling to you on the sets?
We don’t have any sibling relationships, because we are adults and have real respect for each other. ‘That ’70s Show’ was more of a sibling thing because we were kind of young and leaned on each other.
Onset, I spend most of my time with Carla, because she plays my wife on it. It’s great to get to see the whole cast all the time, but Carla is a very special talent. We now know each other so well that we can do so many interesting things together. Like I was saying, the more you know the cast, the better the show gets.
You are returning as Eric Forman in That ’90s Show. How does it feel coming back as your character and reuniting with the cast?
It was unbelievable. It was like all the feelings you get when you go home for a family reunion. They paid so much money to recreate the set and make it look like when we worked on it, so that was incredible to just be able to walk on the set.
Acting is an amazing thing, no matter what show you are in, you all are having a group imaginative exercise, and pretending you are somewhere else. We pretended we were someplace else for years and years together, so it was great to return to that imaginative place.
What is in store for fans this season?
In this season, Tom actually makes some money, which is hard for him because he has never had that before and is unable to enjoy himself. Connor starts to lose a little bit of money and that’s hard for him, so they kind of switch places. I love to get so far into a show that you get to try out new things that weren’t there in the first season. It just starts to get more and more interesting… like life.
You play a writer in Home Economics, if you could write a book about somebody in real life, who would you pick?
I don’t think anyone would want to read a book I write. I did, however, read a book on Walt Disney. But if I did have to write on someone, it would be about someone who blew open the industry, like Steve Jobs.
Actually, I am really interested in Kevin Feige. I love what he has done. I think some people really push something forward in their lifetime and you know it is going to be different when they are gone.
Speaking of Mr Feige, there’s so much talk about Venom, and we saw Tobey Maguire return as Spider-Man. Fans think there is a place in the Multiverse Saga for two Venoms, what are your thoughts on that?
Oh! No one is asking that. I’m sure they are being ironic. We have a joke in the first episode in Disney Land about it. There is a Spide-Man easter egg in Home Economics.
Would you be open to playing the part though?
I don’t think anyone would want that. Thank you so much for saying that, but I think Tom Hardy is doing a great job.
‘Home Economics’ Season 3 streams on Lionsgate Play India.
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