Before there was Tom Hardy’s Venom, there was Topher Grace. And as it turns out, Grace actually wanted to be part of the marketing strategy for Sony’s latest film about the symbiote.
During an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Grace admitted that he had a pretty concrete idea of what he’d have liked to do, and it involved his “Home Economics” series co-stars. Grace noted that it didn’t happen because “it was like, Sony and Disney, and they couldn’t figure it out,” but he had the concept ready.
“We were all watching the trailer for ‘Venom 2’ and I just wanted my character to be like, not into it,” Grace joked. “So I’m like ‘Who is this guy? Like who is Tom Hardy?’”
Grace added that he’d have then had his co-stars talking up Hardy, touting his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2016, and praising his performance as DC villain Bane in “The Dark Night Rises.”
The joke came after Grace revealed that Seth Meyers was actually one of the first people to learn that Grace had nabbed the role of Eddie Brock/Venom in “Spider-Man 3.” According to Grace, he knew Meyers could keep a secret — but Meyers also gave him a hard time about the part.
“Oh! Hm. He’s kind of a bigger guy,” Meyers responded, according to Grace. Meyers joked that he also asked if the film was going to be animated, and Grace would just be lending his voice to the character, rather than his body.
You can watch the conversation in the video here and above.