I had this book as a kid called Animalia. Everything on each page started with the letter that it described; and there were a lot of things on each page. I would spend hours and hours looking at it. It taught me alliteration. It taught me what an abacus was. In a word, it was important.
Topher Grace has a website. It’s called Cereal Prize. His background artwork is stuffed with culture references. My favorite? The 3 poster for Donald Kaufman’s (unmade?) movie.
So, I know, big deal. Everyone has a website.
But Topher Grace gave us an edit to a porno film from Boogie Nights. Have you given us that? No. You wanna watch it don’t you? Culled from outtakes and spliced together with scenes used in the film, Grace sent us Brock Landers. And unlike Jackie and Kelso, this shit is exclusive.
Warning: Video is NSFW.
“Like a lot of my friends out here [Hollywood], I’ve always wanted to have more of a connection with the audience but never felt like I could communicate anything interesting in 140 characters or a selfie,” Grace said about Cereal Prize.
Grace will be posting something everyday on Cereal Prize. It’s a good way to pass the time while deflecting questions about the new Christopher Nolan movie. So, while Topher skirted those questions, errr, gracefully, he did speak to us a lot about being porn-parodied, acting badly and which character of his would be the worst Valentine’s date.
CraveOnline: You have an hourly countdown on the homepage for the next post on Cereal Prize. Do you ever reset it? Pause it? Or are you really good at deadlines?
Topher Grace: I’m pretty good with deadlines… but don’t fact check that with any of my school teachers.
I would say that you’ve been lovingly porn-parodied in That 70’s Ho, how did it feel to retool “The Master” of porn parody – Paul Thomas Anderson?
Mr. Anderson is one of my favorite filmmakers. He always gets amazing performances out of his actors but I was most impressed with how he got “bad” porn performance out of the great actors in Boogie Nights. Acting bad can be harder than acting well.
Did you get all my double entendres in that previous question? Care to add some more?
Oh, I got it. Trust me – the guy who played my character in “That ‘70s Ho” – I wish that was a parody of my junk.
Actually, I only saw the parody on your own website, which had the naughty bits taken out. Did Eric get a Diggler moment? Would Eric be more of a Brock Landers or a Chest Rockwell?
I have the actual DVD but it’s too weird to watch. You kind of start to get into it like the show and then two actors just start going at it. And weird combos, like Kitty and Fez. I had to shut it off after a few minutes.
Speaking around PTA, I’d kinda like to edit Magnolia. Or at least turn down the music a bit. You did a re-cut of Star Wars. Are there other films that you’d like to give the Apocalypse Now Redux? (Editing with deleted scenes).
Coppola’s is a good one. The films I’d really like to have the chance to go back and re-cut from scratch are probably ones I’m in. But who wants to see a 4 hour version of Win A Date With Tad Hamilton?
So you’ve been parodied and via Spider-Man you’ve also been re-booted… do you prefer “rebooting” or “remixing”?
I called the Star Wars one a ‘mash-up’ because it was all 3 films in one, but I think I’m going to call the Close Encounters one (we’re doing a top secret screening later this month) a re-mix because it’s way more in the spirit of the original.
Are you hoping to reboot Boogie Nights? What’s the cast?
No joke, that might be the best cast of all time: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Phillip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, Mark Wahlberg, Alfred Molina. No reboot necessary.
Speaking of that. Jason Reitman’s LACMA table reads – where he recasts a film with actors and they perform at a table, like that last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the “Seinfeld reunion” – he recast Boogie Nights for both the Toronto International Film Festival and for LACMA. You performed in one of his right? What do you think is a bigger compliment as a fan, re-mixing or re-staging?
I love Jason’s table reads, it was actually one of the things that inspired our [edit] screenings. I did the American Pie reading (as Vicky, played by Tara Reid in the film, LACMA staged a gender reversal reading) with the Weitz Brothers and it was incredibly fun performing. I only like to edit the way a director might take an acting class before he directs a film, it might help him see everything at a new angle. Editing’s just a hobby, acting is my job.
I know you probably can’t say much about Interstellar but can you give us a riddle or Cards Against Humanity card that best describes your role in the film?
Sorry.
No, really. Can you tell us the plot of Interstellar?
All I can safely say is that it’s going to be amazing.
Is “TophersProudMom” really your mother commenting on your site?
Ha! No it was me, I created a new email just so that I could make the first comment a funny one.
How does she feel about all your “shit” headers?
Honestly, she thinks it’s hilarious.
What was your favorite cereal prize?
The digital watch that came in Golden Grahams in the 80s.
Getting real topical for the last question … Which character that you’ve played would be the worst Valentine’s Day date?
I’m not aware of too many Valentine’s Day movies so I’ll just go with my character from Valentine’s Day. He was dating Anne Hathaway and forgot it was Valentine’s Day. Rookie move.
Brian Formo is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrianEmilFormo.
