Scarlett Johansson

Topher Grace was born in New York but grew up in Connecticut. He bears an uncanny nickname for someone whose name is Christopher.

I was actually a Chris until prep school. But my parents didn’t realize that Chris Grace sounds kind of a weird when you say the names together. And, as you know, you can never get people to call you Christopher. Americans are so lazy. They won’t even say your full name. I’d be like, “Hi my name is Christopher,” and they’d say, “Hi Chris,” and I’d be like, “No Chris-TO-PHER.”
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I’ve heard people say it’s preppy. But I had never met a Topher before. I did it to be a wise a–. I do love irony, probably more than I should. I practice it in my professional and personal life.

He is also the shy leading man of Scarlett in the movie “In Good Company.” In it he played Carter, a reluctant yet ambitious manager who doesn’t know what to do with his life. Though the romance between Scarlett and Topher was featured only half of the movie, it awfully tackled the reality of a hostile corprate environment where employees are reduced or laid off on the behest of the owners. Topher was also the naive boss of Scarlett’s father, played by Dennis Quaid, after the company shakeoff. It became sinister when he fell in love with Scarlett much to the anger of her disappointed father.
It is gonna be one of those films that you can’t ignore playing during the weekends. The movie came out in 2004.
Many will remember Topher as this pencil-thin oversexed but sweet teenager Eric Forman from “That 70s Show,” which coincindentally catapulted Ashton Kutcher’s career.
The 28-year-old actor from New York saw the inevitability of a huge break in Hollywood. He didn’t renew his contract to continue “That 70s Show” to be able to play Eddie Brock/Venom in the latest “Spiderman.”

I was a huge fan - not just of Spider-Man but of Todd McFarlane, who was the illustrator when I was 12, 13, at the time of the origin of Venom. So not only did I love Spider-Man and Peter Parker, but on top of it, I was there for the birth of that character. So I had this meeting at Sony, and all of a sudden Sam Raimi’s in the room, and then [producer] Laura Ziskin’s in the room, and [producer] Avi Arad, and they’re starting to tell me the plot of Spider-Man 3, and I’m thinking, “Where is this going?” And then when they told me they wanted me to play Venom, I had to bite my tongue so I had some negotiating power.
We went to Comic-Con and they had a trailer there that I hadn’t seen, and I was geeking out about it backstage. I mean, that would be a cool moment in my life if I weren’t on the screen. And it’s me! It’s blowing my mind. It’s some of the coolest stuff I’ve ever seen in film, and I’m a real cinephile.

So the next time you see Topher, say hi. Because this kid will make it bigger in Hollywood.

Topher Grace, Spiderman 3, Eddie Brock, Venom