That ' '70s' guy moves graciously onto big screen

By Anthony Breznican
The Associated Press

	Topher Grace
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"That's like an agent's rule that you have to put yourself front and center," says the 25-year-old actor, who plays beleaguered Eric Forman on "That '70s Show."

"I'm big-time into ensembles. I just don't know why people do films where they're all alone because you're missing an opportunity to really have a lot of people make you better, and you can make them better. It's sort of like a team sport."

As a teenager, Grace wanted to be a pro tennis player but sprained his ankle twice. He'd filled small roles in school plays, and when he couldn't play sports anymore he tried for the lead in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

Terry and Bonnie Turner, creators of TV's "3rd Rock from the Sun," were in the audience at the school in New Hampshire — where their daughter also went — and were so impressed with Grace as the fast-talking Roman slave Pseudolus that they later sought him to star in their upcoming sitcom "That '70s Show."

Although he had no formal training as an actor, Grace says he's learned a lot since then.

"Doing a sitcom is like a graduate school in acting," he says. "It's wonderful because you can kind of suck at the beginning, and it's not really your fault as long as you're Darwinian about it and you evolve. Then you're OK."

He signed on for a seventh season of the sitcom, but after next year he plans to pursue other roles, maybe even finish college.

Meanwhile, he's banking on "Win a Date," which opens today. Grace plays a regular guy whose small-town true love is wooed by a Hollywood actor.

Is Grace like his screen alter egos? He definitely has his Formanisms, a dry sense of humor and a relaxed, eyes-half-open attitude. But Grace, who gets his nickname from the latter half of Christopher, doesn't seem nearly as desperate or comically unhinged as the small-town grocer he plays in "Win a Date." Above all, he seems confident — and scrupulously careful.

Ashton Kutcher says his super-serious "That '70s Show" co-star wasn't interested in being a practical-joke victim on the celebrity prank show "Punk'd," recalling, "He said to me, 'If you ever put me on your show I won't sign off on it, so it won't even matter.' "

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