Topher Talks of Spidey and Venom
Topher Grace talked to SCI FI Wire about being a long time comic book fan and his role as Venom.
Topher Grace is set as Eddie Brock, the rival photographer at the Daily Bugle., His jealous of Peter Parker only fans the flame of hate when he transforms to Venom.
"When we saw the preview at Comic-Con, I was like, 'That would be a big moment in my life if I weren't in the film,'" Grace said in an interview. "And I'm playing the guy. I was going nuts."
"There's a lot of freedom with a bad guy," Grace said. "When you're a protagonist, whenever you go a certain distance away from the center, ... a bell goes off, because you have a responsibility to the audience to be very real. So they can kind of relate to you. But when you're a bad guy—especially when you're me, who's kind of a psycho alien from outer space— ... like, the bell doesn't go off as many times."
Topher said that Eddie Brock is deceptively similar to Peter, at least at the beginning of the sequel. "They kind of have a very similar job," he said. "He works at The Bugle, they both work for J.J., and Eddie has a better exterior than Peter. You know, they look similar, but he's got a little bit more product in his hair, he dresses a little flashier, and you know, he's a little more of a flirt. They kind of like the same women, and as the movie progresses you realize that—of course, we know that Peter has this great interior, and we find out that Eddie does not. So it's kind of a case study, [as] if someone was given the same powers as Peter was given in part one, but didn't have that great advice from Uncle Ben. I used to say to them all the time on set, it's like my motto is 'With great power comes great fun.'"
For scenes after Brock finally transforms into Venom, Grace had to undergo a grueling makeup regimen. "I had four hours of prosthetic makeup every morning when I was Venom, and just getting on the suit takes about 45 minutes before that, so I had to get there at 3 or something," he said. "And I had to work out. I put on 20 pounds, which really was very hard. I'm really a skinny dude, and it was a lot of work. It wasn't just hanging from those rigs. I'd watch Tobey and go, 'Oh, that looks like fun, swinging around.' But I ... did, like, one one-hundredth of what he does on the film, and I just have a lot of respect for what he's been doing for all of these years. Physically, it's a whole sort of process."